Aby Rosen and the approved plans for 980 Madison

This isn’t Aby Rosen and Michael Fuchs’ finest hour. In addition to a feud with longtime business partner Harry Lis, and an impending foreclosure at their 610 Lexington Avenue development site, Rosen and Fuchs’ RFR Holding is also now running low on cash at 980 Madison Avenue. The loan on the five-story, 100,000-square-foot building, which sits between East 76th and East 77th streets and within the Upper East Side Historic District, is still current, but according to Crain’s, it has entered special servicing and could go into default when it matures in October. [more]

Elliman sales manager Ronald Tardanico

Four days before high-power real estate broker Linda Stein was beaten
to death in her Upper East Side apartment, the personal assistant now
on trial for her murder complained to the Prudential Douglas Elliman
sales manager about the way Stein was treating her and requested
another assignment. Ronald Tardanico, the sales manager in charge of Elliman’s 980 Madison
Avenue office, testified today that on Oct. 26, 2007, Natavia Lowery
approached him and complained that Stein was forcing her to do non-real
estate-related tasks such as applying Stein’s makeup and answering
personal e-mails. When defense attorney Thomas Giovanni asked if Lowery
also complained about Stein yelling and screaming at her, Tardanico
said, “I don’t recall that.” After listening to Lowery’s complaint, Tardanico said he gave her some options about how they could handle it. “I told her that she could resign, we could reposition you in the
company, if such a position exists, or you could work things out,”
Tardanico said on the stand in Lowery’s trial on murder and grand
larceny charges in Manhattan Supreme Court. Tardanico said he told Lowery to, “sleep on it over the weekend. Let me know on Monday what you want to do.” When Monday came and passed without Lowery bringing the subject up
again, Tardanico said he assumed she had dropped it and was going to
try to work things out with Stein. The next day, Stein, 62, was found bludgeoned to death inside her Fifth Avenue high-rise. [more]

From left: Natavia Lowery and Linda Stein

Jury selection continued today in the case of Natavia Lowery, the former personal assistant to broker Linda Stein, who is charged with killing the broker-to-the-stars in October 2007.

In Manhattan’s State Supreme Court, 70 potential jurors filed into a courtroom on the 13th floor where Justice Richard Carruthers explained how Stein, who was a top producer for Prudential Douglas Elliman, was “known in the real estate and entertainment world in New York.” Stein, who worked in Elliman’s 980 Madison Avenue office, counted Sting, Madonna and Billy Joel among her clients.

As on Tuesday, which was the most recent day of the trial — Wednesday was off — jurors today were then led behind closed doors today to fill out a basic questionnaire and asked if they were available for a two-month trial.

Also likely to be argued today by attorneys for Lowery, 28, who is clad in a gray top and pants in the courtroom, is whether jurors should be allowed to watch a videotaped confession from Lowery, given to police, or merely read its transcript, as defense attorneys prefer. [more]

Natavia Lowery, who stands accused of killing broker Linda Stein, for whom she worked as a personal assistant, resides in the “punitive segregation” section in Rikers Island because she was found to have thrown liquid at a guard, according to a spokesperson for the city’s Department of Correction. The type of liquid is still under investigation, the spokesperson said.
However, the guard was taken to the hospital to be cleaned and have her eyes checked out. The incident occurred Jan. 2. That same day, following the liquid toss, Lowery was relocated from her longtime cell — where she has spent more than two years — and put in a new one in the harsher
“punitive segregation” section. That part, which functions as sort of a jail within a jail, could be Lowery’s home until at least April. While it is, the spokesperson said, she can only leave her cell for an hour of mandated recreation a day, and, say, visits or religious services. Those in the general population at Rikers, meanwhile, are free to leave their cells during daylight hours. The trial was supposed to begin Monday morning. But just as soon as it started, in Manhattan’s State Supreme Court, Justice Richard Carruthers confusingly sent everybody home because Lowery was wearing an orange jumpsuit. Today, some of the mystery was cleared up. [more]

Natavia Lowery (left), one-time assistant to broker Linda Stein (right), is charged with Stein’s murder

Natavia Lowery, who is accused of murdering her boss, Linda Stein, the megawatt Prudential Douglas Elliman broker who died in October 2007, was a chronic thief with past employers, prosecutors said today in Manhattan’s State Supreme Court. In a preliminary hearing to lay out the trial’s ground rules, Assistant District Attorney Joan Illuzzi spelled out new instances of stealing by Lowery, in addition to the already publicized case of identity theft involving a former Brooklyn roommate. For one, Lowery stole “thousands of dollars” from Planned Parenthood, where she temped before becoming Stein’s assistant, in a racket that involved buying items on a corporate credit card and then returning them for cash, Illuzzi said. The scam, which prosecutors discovered after going through receipts confiscated from Lowery, also prevented her from landing full-time employment with the agency, whose directors could testify in the trial. “Her skills and attitude weren’t ones that they thought were appropriate for permanent work,” Illuzzi told Justice Richard Carruthers. [more]

The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission approved a less formidable expansion of a six-story building at 980 Madison Avenue between 76th and 77th streets, two years after rejecting a proposed 30-story glass addition to the building, according to the New York Times. Architect Lord Norman Foster and landlord Aby Rosen had faced a firestorm of controversy over their proposed changes in 2006, receiving a scathing review from New York Times critic Nicolai Ouroussoff. Later alterations to the plan were also denied by Landmarks. The most recent plan, approved by a 7-to-1 vote, includes an addition limited to 108 feet.