Aby Rosen

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 didn’t care much for. I grew up in Germany postwar as a Jewish child; I did not need an anti-Semitic undertone ...

I’ve seen a lot of anti-Semites who mingle with Jews left and right.  read more »

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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 yourself as a high-art Donald?  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 sale.  read more »

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 build at all: Mayor Mike Bloomberg." Go to story by Matthew Schuerman. Developers Scramble As Spitzer Caps Financing "Right as the big-spending Pataki administration gave way to the parsimonious Spitzer one, someone looked in the collection box and noticed that the state had run out of the ability to authorize cheap housing bonds. Now, developers will have to accept lower profits, change their plans--or fight back." Go to story by Matthew Schuerman. Schrager to Bowery Hotel: Good Luck! "Only four of the Bowery Hotel's 17 floors have opened for business, but the fireplace in its whiskey-colored lobby already hisses. The thick velvet curtains are up, the over-worn Oriental rugs are down, there's pricey booze in the back-room tavern and seven copies of The Times in the old-fashioned newspaper racks. But this isn't the first Manhattan hotel to be so bucolic and erudite. Ian Schrager's recently redone and fawningly received Gramercy Park Hotel stands 18 blocks northward, casting a tall, dark, and handsome shadow over its young competitor." Go to story by Max Abelson. Is Caffeine More Important Than the Environment? "On a recent Sunday morning in Greenwich Village, a half dozen patrons of Think Coffee waited in line to place orders for toasted bagels, cappuccinos and the like. Everything about the scene was wholly unremarkable, except for the flyers taped to the bar where customers collect their drinks: 'Don't Let NYU Drive Us Out of Business!!'" Go to story by David Foxley. Nielsen Company Says Good-Bye to Leg Room at 770 Broadway "The Nielsen Company (formerly VNU Media) has abandoned a plan to move to downtown Brooklyn, but is close to shedding two floors at its Astor Place home at 770 Broadway, a spokesman confirmed." Aby Rosen Pays $30 M. for Noho Landmark Housing His 'Chinese Balthazar' "The flashy real-estate mogul Aby Rosen has purchased the Noho building that's home to his sleek investment, The Chinatown Brasserie, for $30 million." Go to Commercial Breaks by John Koblin. Manhattan's Prophet of 'Budget Chic' Welcomes You to His New Hotels "The refurbished Marrakech Hotel, located at Broadway and 103rd Street, represents a more upscale approach to lodging for owner Hank Freid. He calls it 'budget chic,' and it's just the first phase of an ongoing, roughly $35 million upgrade of his Manhattan hotel properties--and maybe also of his own public image." Go to Counter Espionage by Chris Shott. JFK Party Pad in Carlyle Hotel Goes for $12.5 M. "Billionaire Karen Pritzker, heiress to the Hyatt hotel fortune, has expensive lodging tastes. According to city records, she paid $12.5 million this month for the lordly and infamous two-bedroom duplex penthouse at the Carlyle Hotel." Martha's Daughter Pays $16 M. for Another Two at 165 Charles "Alexis Stewart may have briefly lost her mother to the federal penal system, but she's since been recompensed with copious name-brand waterfront real estate. According to city records, she's paid $16 million for her fourth and fifth apartments at Richard Meier's crystalline 165 Charles Street condo." Go to Manhattan Transfers by Max Abelson. Demand Looks Good for Downtown Towers "It's looking good these days for downtown Manhattan to become one of the great commercial real-estate success stories of the next several years." Go to The Lab by Tom Acitelli. 'In New York, Real Estate Is a Blood Sport' "Craig Newmark opines about working with the NYPD and the City Council to combat real-estate fraud on Craigslist--and on why he's never used it to find an apartment." Go to The Sit-Down by Matthew Schuerman. The New York Private Library "A private library is one of the age-old longings that, depending on the decade or century, have previously included moats, labyrinths, studios for painting people wearing turbans, swimming pools shaped like kidneys, rumpus rooms (with ping-pong or pool tables), decks and screening rooms." Go to Interiors by Toni Schlesinger.

LOCATION: The controversy over 980 Madison Avenue has yet to be resolved, but the Landmarks Preserva  read more »

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 Bourbon. "They felt the building did not relate well with the Parke-Bernet building."

One commissioner, the Rev. Thomas Pike, even called it a "bad marriage."

But the developer, Aby Rosen, was ready for a lot worse.

"From our perspective, it went quite well," said Rosen's spokeswoman. "Nobody was closing the door and saying, 'Absolutely not. You can't build something on top of the Parke-Bernet building.'"

At least the commission did not take a vote, permitting the Foster-Rosen team to come back in a few months with a revised plan.

- Matthew Schuerman

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 »

In a conversation on Tuesday with The Real Estate, the developer Aby Rosen did his best to besmirch the knight in a white suit who tried to rescue 980 Madison in the Times this weekend:

Tom Wolfe loves to rant and he's been ranting against the city and the Landmarks [Preservation] Commission and the commissioners left and right. I think the commissioners are doing a fantastic job. They do not need Tom Wolfe telling them what to do. The landmarking issue is worldwide. There is an issue, but he works with the insult factor. I always felt insults were a sign of weakness, not strength. He should stick to writing books. His facts were not great, either. It's easy to write an op-ed piece. You can pick and choose your facts.

Rosen, whom Wolfe described standing outside last month's commission hearing with his "chin up, tummy out," went on to extol all the great parts of 980 Madison Avenue that Charlotte Simmons' alter ego overlooked: the museum, sculpture garden, green technology and a very nice building to boot.  read more »

"I am a respected developer. I would do things right."

- Matthew Schuerman

An architecture firm named Skidmore, Owings & Merrill--the group behind buildings named the Lever House, Sears Tower, and the AOL Time Warner Center--is turning 70 years young.

Clear your calendar: On September 6, little SOM is throwing a birthday bash at Aby Rosen's private Lever House terrace.

Grab the new book while you're there (it's cutely subtitled: 'The Experiment Since 1939'), and be sure to ask how the Freedom Tower or diminutive Burj Dubai are coming along.  read more »

- Max Abelson

Click image to enlarge.

Devoting an entire issue to real estate is a great idea for two reasons.

First, New Yorkers seemingly can't get enough of the topic. Second, there's a lot of brokerages ready to spend big money on full-color ads for their luxury developments.

Bulging to over 200 pages, this weekend's New York Times magazine features plenty of articles, advertisements, and advertorials.

It's honestly difficult to know where to begin.

There is the "Agents Provocateurs" piece with full-page, stylish shots of the city's top developers and brokers. Some of those included are Aby Rosen, Dolly Lenz, and Paula Del Nunzio--whose picture is taken at Emilio Ambasz's mansion on East 62nd Street. Not only do we find out about their current projects and biggest coups, but also fantasies and dress codes. For the record, Mr. Rosen prefers Thomas Pink cuff links.

There are at least a dozen other pieces which vary from subsidized housing, to the Donald Trump of New Orleans, and even what a 400-year old house in Amsterdam can say about today's market.  read more »

We might need all weekend to get through it.

- Michael Calderone

Outside Looking In. Ian Schrager and Aby Rosen Offer A Sneak Preview of 40 Bond

The velvet rope was lowered yesterday for some architecture writers to nosh on Nobu cod at the sales office for the much hyped 40 Bond.

Today, developers Ian Schrager and Aby Rosen, the stylish duo profiled last month by The Observer, were on hand to entertain real estate and luxury living reporters. And there was more food from Nobu for the starving scribes.

Mr. Schrager, accustomed to catering to the beautiful people, briefly ran through his resume since co-founding Studio 54. There were a few jabs at the hotel industry for stealing his ideas, whereby a Schrager project was treated like a "candy store" to grab from freely.

But that's all in the past now, right? Now, Mr. Schrager admits to "having a ball" since hooking up with Mr. Rosen on smaller scale projects, yet with big name architects like Herzog and de Meuron.  read more »

Tomorrow, the rest of a the rabble (and by rabble we mean wealthy condo buyers) can peruse models encased in glass. Or they can simply look at samples of glass--the "luminescent curved glass" that was flown in from Barcelona. It's certainly worth a peak, even if all the sushi is gone.

-Michael Calderone

Last November, Ian Schrager and Aby Rosen invited about 25 of Manhattan’s top luxury real-esta  read more »

- That syrup smell? Blame New Jersey. New York Times - Real estate slowdown? The number of mortgage applications filed last week fell to the lowest level since May 2002. The Real Deal - Jonathan Miller gets meta: Big Media’s use of “bubble speak” is declining. Matrix - Meanwhile Janis Mara at Inman News makes fun of everyone. - Prices went up in Manhattan. But volume went down. WSJ Online - Ian Schrager and Aby Rosen bought One Madison Avenue; it's fated for condos. The Real Deal - More on Castle Village residents getting slapped with major bills stemming from the West Side Highway collapse in the Spring. Curbed - Claim: Economic resurgence for lower Manhattan. New York Sun - New details of the World Trade Center Memorial design. Daily News - The Federal government will soon be New Orleans' largest land-owner. New York Times - Selling reporters on the condos at the Plaza. New York Times - Second Avenue Deli closes--maybe for good. New York Times - Rejected from one downtown tourist trap, the Drawing Center considers another: South Street Seaport. New York Times - If you can't clean it properly, sell ads on it! David Dunlap on those ad-wraps on subway-station columns. New York Times - Art Deco beauty at 29 W. 57th Street (in the shadow of Sheldon Solow's 9 West) could fetch $50 million. New York Post  read more »

New York City's smallest private girls' school is about to get a little larger.  read more »

Wearing waders and clutching cardboard models of the skyscrapers he owns, German developer Aby Rosen  read more »