Aby Rosen’s RFR Facing Foreclosure at 2 Additional NYC Retail Properties
By Abigail Nehring August 12, 2024 2:48 pm
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Blackstone (BX) and Rialto Capital are looking to foreclose on pieces of RFR’s retail portfolio at One Jackson Square and 219 East 67th Street.
Rialto launched foreclosure proceedings against the retail condominiums at both properties after Aby Rosen and Michael Fuchs’s RFR defaulted on $22.4 million worth of loans, according to court records filed Aug. 7 and 8 in Manhattan Supreme Court. The pre-foreclosure actions were first reported by The Real Deal.
A spokesperson for Blackstone said in a statement the private equity giant is continuing “to engage with borrowers to find the best resolutions possible.”
A spokesperson for RFR declined to comment and a spokesperson for Rialto did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Blackstone-Rialto joint venture, led by Blackstone Real Estate Debt Strategies and Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust, took over the pair of troubled loans in December, when it acquired a 20 percent stake in Signature Bank’s $16.8 billion commercial real estate portfolio.
Signature had provided RFR a $20.3 million mortgage in 2018 for eight retail units at the bottom of the 11-story, curvy, glass condo building it developed with Hines at One Jackson Square in the West Village. The debt matures in February 2025, according to Rialto’s complaint.
But RFR stopped making payments in April 2023, a month after the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation shuttered the floundering Signature Bank, court records show.
The retail space at the building, which has an alternate address of 122 Greenwich Avenue, is partly occupied by Starbucks, according to the company’s website and property records.
A similar story played out at the 2,869-square-foot retail unit at the base of the Upper East Side’s 219 East 67th, a six-story condo building between Second and Third avenues. RFR scored a $2.2 million mortgage from Signature in 2022, which is set to mature in 2027, but RFR stopped making payments in September, Rialto claimed.
Rosen is also facing foreclosure at 522 Fifth Avenue after RFR defaulted on its much heftier $224 million worth of debt in December, according to a June foreclosure case by loan service Keybank (KEY).
Abigail Nehring can be reached at anehring@commercialobserver.com.
