Battle at Chrysler Building far from over despite setback for real estate titan
The Chrysler Building drama is far from over despite a judge’s ruling last week that Aby Rosen must butt out of Cooper Union’s management of the tower and not interfere with its collection of rents from tenants (who are technically subtenants due to the ground lease).
Judge Jennifer Schecter’s issuance of an injunction sought by Cooper Union presumably will put an end to tenants’ confusion over whom to pay — and to incidents such as a recent one when an executive of Cushman & Wakefield, the firm Cooper Union hired to manage the tower, was allegedly denied entry by Rosen’s team.
But Schecter is also hearing the larger case over the landmark skyscraper: The school’s effort to evict Rosen from the leasehold altogether over non-payment of ground rent, and Rosen’s fierce resistance to the action, including a $100 million suit against Cooper Union for allegedly mismanaging the property.
Sources said that despite the judge’s language at the hearing — when she termed some of Rosen’s assertions “flimsy” — the case could take until the end of the year to be decided.
Unless, that is, the parties somehow decide to settle out of court — which seems remote given that the two sides are only digging in their heels.
But both sides are in a pickle. Rosen’s clearly on the defensive, but Cooper Union would have to decide what to do at Chrysler if Rosen is evicted from the leasehold.
Cushman & Wakefield and Savills, which handles leasing, are fine outfits but neither is a developer – and the deteriorating and antiquated Chrysler is in need of major capital work.
Everyone hopes for a swift conclusion, lest Chrysler — at the heart of the thriving Grand Central district but in need of perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars of renovations — ends up dark the way another landmark tower, 70 Pine St. downtown, was before Rose Associates stepped in to convert it to apartments.
Mitchell Moss, a professor of urban policy and planning at NYU, said, “There are few office towers in NYC that are known around the world. The Chrysler Building is too important to New York City to be treated as just another old office building.”
Urban Atelier Group is moving to Rudin’s recently renovated 41 Madison Ave. The New York-based construction management firm signed a 15-year lease for 25,268 square feet, expanding next year from its current 18,000 square feet at 85 Fifth Ave.
It’s the third new lease at 41 Madison over the past few months at the 560,000 square foot tower, where major tenants include Clarick Gueron Reisbaum LLP, Polar Asset Management Partners Inc. and Kensington Vanguard.
