Aby Rosen seeking $30M for new Seagram Building eatery

RFR head promising investors big returns for restaurant that replaces Four Seasons

Four Seasons Restaurant
The Four Seasons Restaurant at 375 Park Avenue (inset: Aby Rosen)

The famed Four Seasons Restaurant may be set to leave Aby Rosen’s Seagram Building next year, but the landlord has already launched a marketing campaign to raise $30 million for a new high-end eatery in the space.

Rosen is seeking as many as 100 partners to invest at least $300,000 in the new restaurant, which will be operated by a company led by restaurateurs Mario Carbone, Jeff Zalaznick and Rich Torrisi.

The RFR Holding co-founder is promising investors a 120 percent return before he and his partners take any proceeds, according to Crain’s, as well as a 40 percent cut of future profits. Rosen and the restaurateurs would collect the remaining 60 percent.

He’s also spared no expense on the marketing materials being sent to investors, which are packaged in a marble box shaped like the famous square pool that sits inside the landmarked Four Seasons, sources said.

Sign Up for the undefined Newsletter

Rosen announced plans to open a new eatery in the space, located at 375 Park Avenue, earlier this year. The landlord and Four Seasons owners Julian Niccolini and Alex von Bidder couldn’t reach a deal to renew the lauded restaurant’s lease, which expires next summer.

Reports have Niccolini and von Bidder negotiating a deal to move the iconic restaurant atop Fosun International’s 28 Liberty Street office tower in the Financial District.

The Four Seasons has called the Seagram Building home since 1959. The city’s biggest estate players gathered at the venue in October to celebrate the release of The Real Deal’s “The Closing” book. [Crain’s]Rey Mashayekhi