RFR Officially Evicted From Chrysler Building

Aby Rosen and Michael Fuchs’s RFR Holding has officially been booted from the Chrysler Building.

Manhattan-based RFR was evicted from the property Wednesday after a New York State Supreme Court judge ruled its ground lease with Cooper Union, which took over operations of the skyscraper in November, was terminated, according to The Real Deal, which first reported the news.

Cooper Union, which owns the land the 77-story Chrysler Building sits on, moved to end Rosen’s stay at the property in September after RFR missed $21 million in ground-rent payments due since May, as Commercial Observer previously reported.

RFR then filed a lawsuit against the school, accusing Cooper Union of “acting in bad faith” by refusing to consider potential modifications to the ground lease, CO reported.

But with Wednesday’s ruling, the court ordered RFR to vacate and surrender the property, awarded Cooper Union damages for the unpaid rent and dismissed all of RFR’s claims against the school, according to sources familiar with the matter.

“RFR could never overcome the basic fact that they were in arrears to the tune of $21 million and had not paid rent in months,” John Ruth, vice president of finance and administration at Cooper Union, said in a statement.

“Despite their desperate attempts to shift the focus, the problem has always been their continued failure to meet their obligations,” Ruth added. “We appreciate the court validating our position, and we look forward to working with Cushman & Wakefield, Savills and our team to assume full management of the property so we can implement a long-term plan to improve the tenant experience and maximize the building’s value.”

RFR declined to comment.

The eviction caps a long saga for the Chrysler Building since RFR took control in 2019.

RFR bought the Art Deco skyscraper from Tishman Speyer and the Abu Dhabi Investment Council for $151 million, a shockingly low sale price because the property was saddled with an onerous ground lease. Copper Union has owned the land underneath the 77-story tower since 1902, when the private college received it as a donation from industrialist Peter Cooper’s family.

RFR had plans to upgrade the iconic New York City building — and even pitched turning it into a hotel — and spent more than $100 million to improve the property, but it failed to make lease payments and thus sought to negotiate new lease terms with lower rents, as CO and TRD reported.

Complicating matters, Signa Holding, RFR’s initial 50 percent equity partner in the Chrysler Building purchase, dropped out in 2023 after it was ordered by an Austrian judge to sell its stake as part of an insolvency restructuring.

Rosen and Fuchs’s eviction from the Chrysler Building comes amid a pile of debt and financial struggles for RFR, which is facing foreclosure at several of its New York City properties and another potential eviction from its SoHo hotel at 11 Howard Street.

Isabelle Durso can be reached at idurso@commercialobserver.com.