Aby Rosen | |
|---|---|
 Rosen in October 2007 | |
| Born | (1960-05-16)May 16, 1960 (age 64) |
| Nationality | |
| Education | Wolfgang Goethe University |
| Occupation | Real estate investor/developer |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 4 |
Aby Rosen (born May 16, 1960) is a German and American real estate tycoon living inNew York City. He co-founded RFR Holding, which owns a portfolio of 93 properties valued over $15.5 billion in cities includingNew York,Miami,Las Vegas, andTel Aviv. Highlights include theSeagram Building,WSouth Beach, The Jaffa Tel Aviv,Gramercy Park Hotel,Paramount Hotel, andMiracle Mile Shops atPlanet Hollywood Resort & Casino, among other properties. Rosen is also a member of, a founding investor in, and the landlord of theCORE Club in New York.[1]
Rosen is a noted collector ofmodern andcontemporary art, owning more than 800 postwar pieces, including 100-plus works byAndy Warhol. His collection includes pieces byJean-Michel Basquiat,Alexander Calder,Damien Hirst,Richard Prince andJeff Koons.[2]
Rosen was born inFrankfurt,West Germany, in 1960, the son ofJewishHolocaust survivors.[3] His mother, Anni, spentWorld War II hiding in a Belgian farmhouse, while his father, Isak, was held inconcentration camps in Germany and occupied Poland.[3] After the war, Anni became a painter and Isak a real estate developer.[3] Rosen attended local schools before going toGoethe University Frankfurt, where he graduated with a business degree. His parents moved to Israel by the 1990s, living inTel Aviv.
In 1987, Rosen moved toNew York City. He apprenticed at a real estate brokerage firm selling properties toGerman investors.[3]
In 1991, he founded the partnership RFR Holding LLC with his childhood friend Michael Fuchs, also a son of Holocaust survivors. The real estate market was in a downturn at the time, but they had access to capital, initially using properties they owned in Germany as collateral. Later they leveraged their access to German investors. Their strategy was to purchase large, vacant office buildings in need of an upgrade and then refurbish them to high standards.[3] In the 15 years after RFR Holding was established in 1991, Rosen acquired a large portfolio of office buildings, including theSeagram Building, purchased for $375 million from theTeachers Insurance and Annuity Association in 2000,[4] andLever House.
In 2006, Rosen partnered withIan Schrager, a longtime friend and co-founder ofStudio 54, to transform the 123-year-oldGramercy Park Hotel with minimalist architectJohn Pawson. In 2014, they put the hotel on the market for $260 million, after completing a four-year, $200 million renovation.[5]
In 2006, Rosen announced plans to develop the site at610 Lexington Avenue in NYC (directly behind the Seagram Building) into a glass hotel and condominium tower to be designed bySir Norman Foster.
The Lever House Art Collection is a collection of works commissioned by Rosen for display at theLever House. It is curated by Richard Marshall, an art historian and associate curator for theWhitney Museum. The Lever House Art Collection was inaugurated in 2004 featuring a work byJorge Pardo. Other works have includedBride Fight byE.V. Day,Hulks byJeff Koons, andHello Kitty byTom Sachs.
Rosen and Fuchs hold a large real estate portfolio in Germany, especially in Frankfurt. In early2007, they bought the headquarters building of the European Central Bank. The company also owns the Swift HausJungfernstieg in Hamburg.
Rosen has been married twice. In 1991, he married Elizabeth Mina Wechsler in a Jewish ceremony atThe Pierre in Manhattan.[7] Before their separation in 2000 and divorce in 2004, they had two sons.[8]
In 2005, Rosen married Samantha Boardman, a psychiatrist and socialite.[9][10][8] She converted to Judaism.[8] They have two children.[8]
Rosen resides on theUpper East Side of Manhattan with his wife and their two children. The family summers inSouthampton, New York,[8] where they have a $21.5 million home.[11]
In 2011, Rosen bought theA. Conger Goodyear House inOld Westbury, New York onLong Island for $3.4 million.[12] The house was designed and built in 1938 byEdward Durell Stone in theInternational Style forAnson Conger Goodyear, the first president of theMuseum of Modern Art.[13][14] Rosen completed a several-year renovation of the property.[15] He keeps many of his important pieces of art there, includingThe Virgin Mother,[16] a 13-ton, 33-foot-high bronze sculpture byDamien Hirst of a pregnant woman with peeled skin and an exposed fetus.[17]
Rosen is reported to own a $36 million vacation home inSaint Barthélemy.[18]
Rosen holds an annual dinner party at the W South Beach duringArt Basel, attended by a mix of celebrities and business leaders.[19]
