RFR’s Michael Fuchs Lists Greenwich Village Home At A Loss

RFR Holding’s recent run of bad luck appears poised to cross into executives’ residences.

Co-founder Michael Fuchs listed his townhouse at 144 Waverly Place in Greenwich Village for $8.9 million, Crain’s reported. The 23-foot-wide, 6,300-square-foot townhouse would sell for $1,413 per square foot if a buyer comes in at ask.

The asking would represent a loss for Fuchs on a property he doesn’t appear to have lived in since purchasing it for $9.2 million in 2019.

Fuchs appeared to use the five-floor property as a rental. Divided into four units — including an owner’s duplex — have been available to rent at various times in Fuchs’ ownership. The duplex was listed for $14,000 a month in 2021, according to StreetEasy.

Fuchs has a handful of properties beyond his Waverly Place home. He spent $8.3 million on a townhouse at 59 Morton Street around the same time he bought on Waverly Place — borrowing a combined $14 million from M&T Bank to finance both purchases — and a two-bedroom condo he and his ex-wife purchased from comedian Seth Meyers at 302 West 12th Street for $4.4 million in 2018.

Douglas Elliman’s Christopher Riccio has the Waverly Place listing.

The marketing of the townhouse comes at a precarious time for Fuchs, both personally and professionally.

On the personal side, former RFR president Jason Brown is suing Fuchs and Aby Rosen for allegedly failing to pay $20 million promised to Brown when he left the company five years ago. Additionally, a judge recently ordered Fuchs to pay $44 million to ex-wife Alvina Collardeu in the pair’s bitter divorce case.

On a professional level, RFR has faced plenty of default notices in recent years, unspared from high interest rates and fallout from the pandemic.

Even before the pandemic, RFR struggled with trophy properties like the Lever House and the Gramercy Park Hotel, which the company ultimately lost. Recently, the $104.5 million mortgage on RFR office building at 90 Fifth Avenue was shipped to special servicing in March. A few days later, Rialto Capital Partners said RFR failed to pay off $39 million in promissory notes last year that were part of the Signature Bank loan sale.

— Holden Walter-Warner