Another RFR loan enters special servicing

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. Since 2006, RFR has been planning a 22-story addition atop the property, for which it received approval from the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission in October 2009 after a bout of controversy. But it’s unclear whether those plans are still on the table now that the building is in financial trouble. Around 11 percent of the space was set to be vacated last month when several tenants’ leases expired, analytics firm Trepp said, though the largest tenant, the Gagosian Gallery, did renew for 50,000 square feet. [Crain’s]