When Cooper Union sent Cushman & Wakefield to take over the Chrysler Building last month, Aby Rosen’s RFR Holding refused to leave. Now, the school is asking the court to eject the company as the power struggle over the landmark skyscraper heats up.
RFR sued Cooper Union in late September, challenging the school’s termination of RFR’s long-term ground lease on the building; attorneys for Cooper Union on Monday filed their response, calling Rosen’s legal maneuver a “shameful” attempt to retrade a previous agreement to amend the ground lease.
“The apparent goal of this gambit is to further [RFR’s] hard-nosed negotiating campaign that seeks to re-trade on [its] now-terminated leasehold deal for the Chrysler Building — or to extract favorable terms from Cooper Union in exchange for agreeing to exit its position,” the attorneys wrote in their response filed in Manhattan supreme court.
Cooper Union’s attorneys are asking the court to dismiss RFR’s lawsuit and to order Rosen’s company to hand over control of the building.
A spokesperson for RFR said in a statement that the company is still looking to negotiate a deal.
“An economically feasible deal has not yet been reached, and we remain ready to move forward and fund the project if Cooper Union agrees to a market deal,” the spokesperson wrote. “Our plans are ready, and the capital is ready.”
The filing is the latest volley in the dispute that arose not long after RFR bought the lease on the Chrysler Building in 2019 for $150 million — a shockingly low sum compared to the $800 million that seller Abu Dhabi Investment Council had paid in 2008 to buy a 90 percent stake from Tishman Speyer.
Rosen claimed that after taking over the building he found it required much more work to bring it up to standard than he was led to believe. Then when the pandemic hit, he sought to modify the ground lease with Cooper Union.
The school said both sides reached an agreement on a modification in May 2023 that would have lowered the monthly rent payments in exchange for RFR paying a lump sum. But Cooper Union claims Rosen couldn’t raise the capital necessary to close the deal. (RFR’s partner on the building, Austria’s Signa Holding, filed for bankruptcy in December.)
Cooper Union said RFR started missing rent payments late last year and now owes more than $21 million. It sent a letter notifying RFR of the ground lease’s termination effective September 27.
Rosen’s company questioned whether Cooper Union can actually terminate the lease, claiming the school failed to properly serve notice and disputing the amount it says it’s owed. RFR also said Cooper Union sabotaged the Chrysler Building with its handling of campus protests last year over the Palestine/Israel conflict, which RFR said drove tenants from the tower.
Cooper Union disputed both claims.
While both sides battle in court, some of the Chrysler Building’s tenants are confused about where they should send their rent checks.
Read more
Commercial
New York
RFR sues Cooper Union to stop Chrysler Building eviction
Commercial
New York
Aby Rosen seeks to rework Chrysler Building ground lease
Commercial
National
Rene Benko’s Signa files for insolvency
Cooper Union sent tenants a letter last month saying they should pay their rent to the school instead of RFR. Some of the tenants told the school they would be putting their monthly payments into escrow until the matter is settled.
Two of those tenants have filed cases asking the court to decide where they should send their rent.