Aby Rosen
It’s been a long three years for Aby Rosen. The landlord and art collector has tried for that long to get approval for an apartment tower at Madison Avenue and 77th Street designed by British starchitect Norman Foster. He’s gone to hearing after hearing at the Landmarks Preservation Commission, repeatedly rebuffed with instructions to cut the building down and make it more harmonious with the historic Upper East Side that surrounds it.... READ MORE»
By Bonnie Kavoussi | July 28, 2009 | 12:52 pm
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I’m not a big fan of dressing up like a prepped-out Hamptons dork.... READ MORE»
Perusing statistics on the city’s biggest commercial property deals is like going to the Empire State Building’s observation deck with tourist friends from out of town: You know it’s supposed to mean something, but New York can be so much... READ MORE»
Any New Yorker who’s asked about potential buyers’ interest in his tectonically enormous real estate is likely to exaggerate a bit. A biomedical venture capitalist, for example, told The Times in May that he’d turned down “five or six” offers as high as $100 million for his 15 Central Park West duplex, which didn’t quite make sense because, among other things, his asking price was only $90... READ MORE»
The city's Landmarks Preservation Commission may vote on developer Aby Rosen's proposed Norman Foster-designed commercial tower at 980 Madison Avenue at its meeting next week, according to a Landmarks spokeswoman. Such a move would bring to an end a more than two-year debate over a planned tower at the site, which has sparked a firestorm of criticism in the Upper East Side from nearby residents and author Tom Wolfe (see our Q&A with... READ MORE»
Tom Wolfe responded in this week's Observer to Aby Rosen's allegations of anti-Semitism in Mr. Wolfe's 2006 New York Times op-ed about Mr. Rosen's plans for 980 Madison. Here was Mr. Rosen in The Observer last week: I like productive criticism; I try to criticize things all the time, not because I’m so important. … I want equal criticism; it’s just the way you deliver it. It had a nasty undertone that I... READ MORE»
Location: You like to give parties with dozens of Russian violinists and industrial quantities of caviar. Is decadence your worst trait? Mr. Rosen: The last thing I am is decadent. … I’m a big thinker; I do a lot of stuff; I enjoy life immensely. … When I throw parties, I blow a lot of money, you know what, so be it; that’s what I like to do. That sounds like Trump. Do you think of... READ MORE»
Aby Rosen and Norman Foster are back at 980 Madison Avenue, and Times architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff has the reveal. The two were beaten back with their 2006 plan to build a much taller 30-story apartment tower atop the 1949 Parke-Bernet Galleries building, also revealed by Mr. Ouroussoff, as it met strong opposition on the Upper East Side.... READ MORE»
It’s official: The Clock Tower at Five Madison Avenue has sold for $200 million. A Tuesday release from part-owner SL Green says that Lev Leviev’s Africa Israel is, indeed, the buyer. The 41-story Clock Tower was also owned by Aby Rosen’s RFR Holding and by hotelier Ian Schrager. Mr. Schrager told The Observer first in March about the tower’s likely... READ MORE»
By | February 28, 2007 | 5:00 am
Bloomberg Hits Up Real-Estate Bigs for WTC Memorial--$5 M. a Piece! "One morning in early February, about a dozen of New York's finest and wealthiest real-estate leaders convened to eat breakfast and hear why they should contribute to the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation. The place was Gracie Mansion. And the speaker was the man who, indirectly or directly, determines how high they can build and where--and, on certain, city-led projects, whether they can... READ MORE»
LOCATION: The controversy over 980 Madison Avenue has yet to be resolved, but the Landmarks Preserva... READ MORE»
By | January 16, 2007 | 11:28 am
A bad marriage or an open door? How best to characterize the reaction from Tuesday morning's Landmarks Preservation Commission meeting on Norman Foster's 22-story tower for 980 Madison Avenue? The Real Estate called the principal actors for comment, having been unable to attend in person. "Nine out of 10 commissioners strongly opposed the current project because of the height, the scale, and the materials were inapporpiate for the district," said commission spokeswoman Lisi de... READ MORE»
On the sleepy last Sunday in November, Tom Wolfe flipped a middle finger at the city’s Landmar... READ MORE»
On the sleepy last Sunday in November, Tom Wolfe flipped a middle finger at the city’s Landmarks P... READ MORE»
