From left: Aby Rosen and Michael Fuchs, 275 Madison Avenue, the Seagram Building at 375 Park Avenue and 400 Park Avenue

The fur is flying again between real estate mogul Aby Rosen and long time investor Harry Lis over whether millions of dollars have been properly invested and accounted for throughout the struggling RFR Realty empire.

Lis, through his Gan Global Investments fund, alleges in a March 6 lawsuit filed in Manhattan Supreme Court that Rosen and partner Michael Fuchs took at least $2.5 million he invested at their 275 Madison Avenue office tower and re-invested them without his permission. [more]

RFR co-founders Aby Rosen and Michael Fuchs, billionaire Peter Brant, investor Harry Lis and hotelier Ian Schrager

A $700 million asking price may be the least of prospective buyers’ concerns as they contemplate the purchase of a 49 percent stake in the landmarked Seagram Building at 375 Park Avenue, between 52nd and 53rd streets, according to Crain’s. Another major problem may be the trail of failed partnerships left behind by majority owners Aby Rosen and Michael Fuchs. Billionaire Peter Brant is selling his share of the property after his relationship with Rosen and Fuchs soured. At one point, the pair reportedly made somewhat disparaging remarks about Brant’s wife, former supermodel Stephanie Seymour. Brant and Seymour were reportedly going through an especially public divorce at the time of the remarks, with accusations of infidelity and drug use referenced in the media. Brant is expected to make between $100 million and $150 million from the sale, based on a valuation of about $1.1 billion for the building and its debt. [more]

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]

From left: Aby Rosen and Michael Fuchs

Aby Rosen and Michael Fuchs, managing partners of RFR Holding, are feuding with their longtime business partner over their struggling real estate assets. According to the Post, Rosen and Fuchs sued partner Harry Lis in February for his refusal to inject capital into several properties that became distressed after the Lehman Brothers collapse, despite reaping the benefits of deals, like their $28.9 million sale of 451 Lexington Avenue last fall. According to the lawsuit, the trio had agreed that when one property within their portfolio made money, those profits would go toward propping up other properties in need of cash. [more]

Serena Boardman (Photo credit: Patrick McMullan)

From the December issue: It’s 2005, and golden-haired socialite
Serena Boardman is sunning herself on a yacht near the coast of
Sardinia in Italy. Nearby, her friend Dori Cooperman — now best known
for befriending actress Lindsay Lohan in rehab — is on the phone with
a reporter from W Magazine, chronicling the addictive qualities of
photo Web site PatrickMcMullan.com. Boardman interjects with her
opinion of the site, which documents the social lives of New York
City’s glitterati. “Tell him it captures a moment,” she shouts. Until
recently, the scene was typical for the 39-year-old Boardman, the
jet-setting heiress to a banking fortune whose stepmother is a European
princess. Along with society pals like Alexandra von Fürstenberg and Blaine Trump, Boardman spent her 20s being photographed in couture gowns at galas and benefits all over New York and Palm Beach, often with her equally glamorous sister, Samantha. Magazines chronicled her taste in clothes (Roberto Cavalli ruffled cocktail dresses) and jewelry (Verdura). She held jobs at the Web site Luxuryfinder.com and in the jewelry department at Sotheby’s. But to the media they were a postscript to Boardman’s glamorous social life. So it comes as a surprise to those who know Boardman that only a few years later, she’s morphed into one of the most successful real estate brokers in the business. [more]