Emily Wright meets New York property tycoon Aby Rosen as he prepares to introduce a more relaxed way of living to the city’s luxury residential scene with One Hundred East Fifty Third Street. Portraits by Emily Andrews
“If something is no good, I throw it away. I apply that to every aspect of my business and my private life. If something doesn’t work anymore? It needs to go. If something is out of date? It needs to go. And a lot of people have a hard time with that. With change.”
After just two minutes in the company of property tycoon Aby Rosen it is pretty clear why he has a reputation for being one of the most ruthless players in New York real estate.
And this is no misconception. In fact it is a character trait the German-born chief executive of developer RFR Holding is all too happy to corroborate. Not least because he has made an extremely successful career out of dragging people kicking and screaming out of their “comfy zones”. And he has no intention of stopping now.
His announcement this summer that the Four Season’s restaurant at his Midtown Seagram building will be replaced when its lease expires next year is a case in point. After more than 50 years in situ he said the iconic outpost had to go, badging it “stale and tired” and consequently sending half of New York into a tailspin.
But Rosen is riding it out, insisting that controversy is a small price to pay for survival. “If you sit on something you think is great for too long, it disappears,” he shrugs. “One of the greatest fears people face in New York is becoming irrelevant. Especially in real estate. And you know what? It can happen really, really fast. The way to avoid that is to embrace change and be OK with making people feel uncomfortable for a while. Because that feeling doesn’t last. It always gives way to something better.”
Here the man behind some of New York’s most iconic landmarks and One Hundred East Fifty Third Street – the new Foster + Partners-designed residential tower launched last month – talks development, disruption and dress-down Fridays.
Breaking the mould
Once completed, the 63-storey One Hundred East Fifty Third Street tower will join the impressive roster that currently makes up the group’s 71-strong portfolio, including the Gramercy Park and the Paramount Hotel in New York, The W South Beach in Miami and Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino in Las Vegas.
And as someone whose raison d’être is to ensure they are always ahead of the curve, it comes as little surprise that Rosen’s most recent New York venture is set to break the mould.
He says the scheme will cement Midtown’s growing reputation as “the new love-child for everyone who wants to live, work and invest in New York”. And the design and interiors have been carefully honed to attract “a less stuffy” buyer.
The lower section will be concrete with polished concrete columns to create a “cool, downtown design with a lofty feel”. The price point will be lower than in some other luxury residential developments in the city, starting at $5m-$7m (£3.3m-£4.6m) for a one-bed on the lower floors going up to around $25m for the higher, 4,000 sq ft full-floor apartments.
But it will be the amenities and the flat design that will really put the stake in the ground for a new type of New York residential development. It is a development Rosen is convinced will complement the more relaxed, casual lives his target market is leading. “The food and restaurants will be less formal and more like an upscale food market,” he says. “A more unstructured, flexible environment. And in the apartments themselves we have got rid of the space you would usually dedicate to a separate dining room as we don’t think people want that anymore. So we have then incorporated that into a new definition of the space which is all about one bigger living/eating/cooking area.
“The trick is to offer buyers choice rather than sticking them in a pre-determined space. I can’t make rules for how people choose to eat or entertain. But we don’t include segregated rooms anymore. We don’t want to label them that way.”
Rosen adds that this design decision has been fuelled, in part, by a wave of younger buyers – “There are a lot of tech kids. People from the West Coast, San Fran and LA who now want to be based out of New York” – but insists that this will not deter the more traditional overseas investors who continue to flock to the Big Apple. Good news given the development has been launched in partnership with China’s biggest residential developer, China Vanke.
“This is a Foster design so it will attract Foster junkies from all over the world,” he says. “And it is flexible enough to be as formal or casual as the buyer wants so we are expecting demand to come from Europe, Asia, the Middle East – all over.”
Relaxed outlook
But he is quick to insist that this does not equate to back-pedalling on his previous comments about the future of the city’s real estate demand. He remains convinced that casual is the future of New York lifestyle and, by default, New York property.
“Slick, fun, less structured. This is what New York is all about now,” he says. “People take off their suit and tie and slip into a casual pullover and some jeans and they should be treated just the same. Europe is still a bit behind that.”
He points to the increasing number of hotels and office buildings becoming more relaxed and fluid, particularly as the co-working trend continues to soar in popularity – “You are going back to a big lobby, space for people to eat wherever they like and multifunctional rooms” – but warns that the more casual you go, the more crucial it is you get the service element right.
“There is a difference between casual and sloppy,” he says. “You say dress-down Friday in France and everyone still looks fantastic. You say it here in the States and people can end up looking like slobs. Whether it is a condo, a hotel or your outfit – the more casual you are the better your quality has to be. When things look relaxed, they only work if the experience is faultless.”
Unfazed by pressure
And faultless is a standard that Rosen himself knows he must always deliver. As one of New York’s most disruptive real estate developers he is under constant pressure to prove the success of his controversial decisions.
It is a level of scrutiny he appears to be entirely unfazed by. “You have to be honest,” he says. “And when you have a conviction you need to run with it. You have to fight for your vision even when it gets shot down. In this life, and in real estate, you always have to be moving, changing. Doing something.”
Rosen on…
Where New York is in the current cycle: “Somewhere in the middle. This current cycle is being driven a lot more by how good the stock is. If you put a lot of bad stuff on the market then supply is endless, demand is there but you can’t fulfil is because the stock is so bad. This time around the stock is excellent, so I think there is still a fair way to go.”
New York’s place as the world’s leading city: “The number of people looking to invest here is just gigantic. In Europe you have so many headaches. Political instability, migration. Everybody wants to come to America. And New York is the place to be. We may have two clowns running for office here in the States but no one really cares who wins in the end. The economy will stay strong and this city can still absorb thousands and thousands of units.”
His gummy bear addiction: “I used to eat a bar of white chocolate and a pack of gummy bears every day. I have cut down after seeing a disgusting documentary on sugar intake.”
