From left: Aby Rosen and Michael Fuchs of RFR Holding

Aby Rosen and Michael Fuchs’ RFR Holding is marketing a development site between West 44th and West 43rd streets, Crain’s reported, which could accommodate construction of a building as big as 355,000 square feet.

Sources told Crain’s that the site, on which there are currently three buildings, could command a hefty price tag — $500 per buildable square foot, going by a recent $400-a-square-foot asking price of a nearby site: a 12,000-square-foot plot at 20 West 40th Street, across from Bryant Park. Jones Lang LaSalle Capital Markets Group brokers are marketing the site.

Meanwhile, RFR is still trying to sell a 59 percent stake in the Seagram building at 375 Park Avenue. Sources told Crain’s that investors have been balking at the $700 million price tag for the Seagram building stake. [Crain's] [more]

From top: Aby Rosen, Michael Fuchs and the Seagram BuildingAby Rosen and Michael Fuchs, partners at RFR Holdings, have yet to find a buyer for their  49 percent stake in the Seagram Building due to the high asking price, Crain’s reported. The pair has looked to sell its stake since May for $700 million, which amounts to roughly $1,800 per square foot. The record price for an office building was set at 450 Park Avenue in 2007, at $1,585 per square foot.

Though Seagram, located at 375 Park Avenue near 53rd Street, is coveted for its location, its architectural design and its bevvy of elite investment firms paying high rents, Crain’s cites industry sources who say the price would need to be lowered to around $1,200 to $1,500 per square foot, in order for the stake to sell. [more]

Aby Rosen

From the July issue: Lately it seems developer Aby Rosen’s every business relationship is worthy of its own daytime soap opera. While Rosen and his company RFR Holding have been in the news a lot since the downturn hit because of struggles at 610 Lexington Avenue, which is on the brink of foreclosure, and because of a split with hotelier Ian Schrager, in the last few months the headlines have been even more fast, furious — and personal — than normal.

In May and June alone, multiple news outlets, including The Real Deal, have published accounts of Rosen’s business feuds. They include: turmoil with his long–time business partner and friend Michael Fuchs; a nasty lawsuit filed by investor Harry Lis involving the sale of one of their joint investments; and a salacious dispute Rosen had with billionaire partner Peter Brant, who is selling his stake in RFR’s Seagram’s Building. According to Crain’s, Brant is selling his stake partially because of “disparaging remarks” Rosen and Fuchs made about Brant’s wife, Stephanie Seymour, whom he’s divorcing.

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Adding to a portfolio that includes the Seagram Building and Lever House, developer Aby Rosen’s RFR Holding has bought the Paramount Hotel for $275 million from Walton Street Capital and Highgate Holdings, according to the Wall Street Journal. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of 2011.
RFR had an incentive to buy, the Journal said, taking advantage of a tax law by reinvesting proceeds from a recent sale to defer a capital-gains payment. [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’s RFR Holding is looking to unload a 49 percent stake in the landmark Seagram Building at more than $2,000 per square foot. According to the Post, the record price per square foot for an office building was set at $1,585 in 2007 with the sale of 450 Park Avenue, and while prices have rebounded somewhat since the real estate crash, such a price is untested in today’s market. “If you want to test the strength of the market, it’s certainly the building with which to do it,” said Woody Heller, head of capital transactions group at Studley, which is not marketing the building. [more]

Russian billionaire and new owner of the New Jersey Nets Mikhail Prokhorov has landed a new office, according to the Wall Street Journal, after signing a lease for 2,500 square feet in the famed Seagram Building at 375 Park Avenue between 52nd and 53rd streets. Prokhorov, who spent $200 million for his 45 percent stake in the Nets last year, will use the space as his office when he’s in town. The basketball enthusiast’s investment has proved crucial for the team — his capital injection helped finance the Atlantic Yards project, the Downtown Brooklyn development where the Nets’ new Barclays Center arena will open. The team is expected to begin using the space in 2012. [WSJ]

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Asking rents are on the rise at some of the city’s most sought-after office buildings, in a move by landlords that tests the waters of the nascent rebound in leasing activity, up 84 percent in the first quarter from one year ago, according to Cushman & Wakefield. One month ago, SL Green Realty, the largest landlord in the city, increased rents by 5 to 7 percent on its most high-end offerings, including the tower floors at 100 Park Avenue. At the Seagram Building and the Lever House on Park Avenue, asking rents are up about 5 percent. Other buildings that have seen upticks include 712 Fifth Avenue, 540 Madison Avenue and the upper floors of 1 Grand Central Plaza. The trend is confined to the very top-tier of the market, however. Office vacancies are still on the rise in Manhattan, and rents in the overall office market are declining further still, down to $55.38 per square foot — the lowest level in three years — in the first quarter, according to Cushman & Wakefield. [Crain’s]

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]

From the August issue: In both real estate and art circles Aby Rosen’s reputation precedes
him. The 48-year-old, silver-haired Rosen is a legendary art collector
and boldfaced name who has successfully parlayed his flashy style and
social status into a hefty real estate portfolio anchored by the iconic
Lever House and Seagram Building — both on Park Avenue.
Until recently, Rosen has methodically placed smart bets, buying
low and then upgrading his buildings and turning them into some of the
most exclusive properties in New York.
Over the years, Rosen’s vast art collection has figured prominently
in his commercial office buildings — at Lever House he’s displayed
works by provocative British artist Damien Hirst — and in his emergence
as a hotel and residential developer. [more]