Fitness centers have closed across the state, but Aby Rosen is building one in the Seagram Building.
The developer and owner of RFR Holding is replacing the Park Avenue tower’s parking garage with a 35,000-square-foot playground that can be home to a variety of sporting activities or corporate gatherings, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Read more
The area is slated to have yoga and spin studios, a climbing wall, basketball courts, a weight room and even a boxing ring. The Journal described Rosen as a kickboxing enthusiast.
Rosen said the addition is geared toward younger employees who work out of the iconic International Style office tower, designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.
“We check all the boxes for the CEOs, and the guys who want the high end,” he told the Journal. “But we were missing something that would cater to the junior partners.”
Rosen is also considering applying for a permit to have cafe seating in the building’s Park Avenue plaza.
The Seagram Building, at 375 Park Avenue, recently lost a major tenant when Wells Fargo decamped for Hudson Yards. Rosen said the renovation is unrelated to the bank’s departure last year.
RFR Holding’s headquarters is now located in the Seagram Building and though Rosen and his employees are back at work, only about 20 percent of the tower’s workers have returned to their desks.
Rosen claimed that about 90 percent of RFR’s office tenants paid June rent while only 55 to 60 percent of retail tenants did. [WSJ] — Erin Hudson