From left: RFR Holdings’ Aby Rosen, Blackstone Group’s Stephen Schwarzman, architect Richard Meier and a Core Club suite

In 2005, RFR Holdings head Aby Rosen gave Jennie Saunders the first six floors of the condominium he was building at 60 East 55th Street to house her club for the rich and famous.

As a recent profile in Departures magazine highlighted, the club, known as Core Club, has become a haven for New York elites from all industries, including Blackstone Group President Stephen Schwarzman, architect Richard Meier, football legend Dan Marino and Hollywood talent agent Ari Emanuel. Many of those same people were among the 150 people who invested $100,000 to get Core Club off the ground.
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Aby Rosen and Chinatown Brasserie

The retail condominium that houses Chinatown Brasserie may be headed for an ownership battle now that Aby Rosen and Michael Fuchs’ troubled loan on the property is up for grabs. According to the Wall Street Journal, the $17.7 million loan, made in 2007 to the pair’s RFR Holdings and converted into commercial mortgage-backed securities, is backed by the retail condo at the landmark 380 Lafayette Street, where the upscale Chinatown Brasserie opened in 2006. [more]

Developer Aby Rosen has purchased back the defaulted $18 million loan on his 66 East 55th Street, sources told Crain’s. That’s the building that houses the Core Club, a members-only social club that counts a number of real estate bigwigs in its ranks and costs a reported $15,000 per year. Rosen defaulted on the loan, which was being marketed by special servicer Helios, in early 2009. [Crain's]

Aby Rosen

Developer Aby Rosen and his longtime friend, hotelier Ian Schrager, are poised for a split at the Gramercy Park Hotel, which they bought together in 2003 and transformed into the haven for contemporary art and design it is today. According to the Wall Street Journal, Rosen is negotiating a deal in which he would buy back Union Labor Life Insurance’s $140 million loan on the 185-room property, which the partnership defaulted on this year, for roughly $90 million. He would also buy out Schrager’s stake, sources told the paper. Meanwhile, Rosen could lose 66 East 55th Street, home to the Core Club, where he’s been in default on the building’s $18 million retail condominium loan since last year. The lender is soliciting bids on the loan, due Oct. 26, and has reportedly garnered the attention of several prominent real estate families who intend to take over the property. [more]

Riverton Apartments is at the top of the list of New York City’s commercial properties that are at least 60 days delinquent, by size of loan balance, according to data from commercial loan tracking firm Trepp updated through today. (See full list of delinquent properties — and zoom in on it — here, plus see a slide show of some of the properties above.) Laurence Gluck bought Riverton, the 12, 13-story buildings that lie between 135th and 138th streets and Fifth Avenue and Harlem River Drive, for $135 million in 2005, then refinanced the property with a $225 million mortgage. The foreclosure auction is set for March 11. Other large delinquent properties include Hampshire Hotels & Resorts’ Dream Hotel at 210 West 55th Street, with a loan balance of $100 million, and Time Hotel at 224 West 49th Street, also owned by an affiliate of Hampshire Hotels & Resorts, with a balance of $55 million. Also included on the list are the Meyberry House at 220 East 63rd Street with a $90 million loan balance and and the Core Club retail condominium at 60 East 55th Street, with an $18 million balance. The Real Deal looked at commercial properties that were 90 or more days delinquent in its 2010 Data Book. TRD [more]