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Breaking up can be pricey in the world of luxury real estate.
Jason Brown, a former partner at RFR Holding, the firm behind the Chrysler Building, the Seagram Building and other high-profile sites, nabbed a hefty $25 million exit package upon leaving the company in 2019, according to a new court filing about an ongoing case in the matter.
In general, details about executive pay are usually negotiated secretly and kept under wraps at privately-held firms such as RFR, whose co-principals and co-founders are Aby Rosen and Michael Fuchs.
But the payout for Brown, who served as the chief operating officer, spilled out into the open after Rosen and Fuchs stopped making installments on Brown’s payment in winter 2021. After the missed payment, which was supposed to be Brown’s third, Brown dragged his ex-bosses into court.
The battle, which does not appear to have been previously reported, appears to have been settled in spring 2021 with Rosen and Fuchs agreeing to pay a penalty of 12% interest on the missed amount and to resume wiring money, court records show. The developers also had to admit wrongdoing.
“I admit that I defaulted on my obligations under the promissory note,” Rosen wrote in court papers. “I admit that I have not asserted and do not have any defense to justify, excuse or otherwise defend against my default.”
Because confessions like the developers’ are enforceable only for three years, a judge also ordered Rosen and Fuchs to admit wrongdoing again at a later date, which led to a similar confession that appeared Tuesday in Manhattan Supreme Court.
Since tangling with Brown, RFR’s principals appear to have stayed current. Brown apparently has received a $3.5 million payment every winter since 2021, records show, and can supposedly expect to continue reaping identical windfalls until 2026.
It’s not known why RFR parted ways with Brown, who was in his late 40s when he left the company after more than a decade in a C-suite position. The same year Brown left RFR, he listed his nine-bedroom Greenwich mansion for $16.4 million and sold it for $12.5 million the following year, according to Zillow. RFR’s current COO is Michael Astarita, according to the company’s website.
As have many office landlords in the post-Covid period, RFR appears to have struggled with persistent office vacancies. A $105 million mortgage backed by a half-empty RFR office building at 90 Fifth Ave. near Union Square was sent to special servicing in March after its property taxes went unpaid.
Similarly, in 2022 RFR lost control of the Gramercy Park Hotel, the downtown rock-and-roll icon, after a yearslong dispute with land owner Solil Management, a real estate arm of the Goldman family, over millions of dollars in Covid-related missed rent payments.
However in a blockbuster 11th-hour deal, RFR did recently manage to refinance the maturing debt on its signature property, the landmark Seagram Building at 375 Park Ave., after securing a $1.1 billion loan package from lender JVP Management.
The 33-year-old RFR also owns the Chrysler Building at 405 Lexington Ave., though not its land, which is controlled by the college Cooper Union.
A phone message left for RFR’s spokesman was not returned, and Brown could not be reached by press time.
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C. J. Hughes , 2024-04-30 22:55:44
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