zuMedia Sues Michael Fuchs, RFR Over Hamptons Rental

Tech company co-founders Phyllis Jager and Barry Terach thought they had found the perfect backdrop for digital content: a seven-bedroom estate on the Southampton waterfront.

Their company, zuMedia, plopped down $350,000 to rent the sprawling shingle-style house at 809 Meadow Lane last February through April. But a zuMedia employee who arrived at the property four days later was not allowed inside, a new lawsuit alleges.

The owner of the 5,000-square-foot property is a limited liability company tied to Michael Fuchs, the publicity-shy co-founder of RFR Holding. ZuMedia is suing Fuchs, his company RFR Holding and the LLC that owns the property, claiming they “acted wantonly, willfully and maliciously” by taking their rent money and then refusing to hand over the keys.

The company wired the money to Fuchs through an RFR bank account, according to the suit. It is demanding its money back plus interest and attorney fees.

“It is unclear whether they are simply unwilling, or are for some reason unable, to do what is plainly required of them by common sense and simple justice,” the suit says.

The lawsuit is the latest legal headache for Fuchs and RFR co-founder Aby Rosen, who have been slapped with default notices and pre-foreclosure suits from Rialto Capital Advisors and other lenders. In its biggest setback so far, RFR lost control of the Chrysler Building on Wednesday after a judge terminated its ground lease with Cooper Union.

Fuchs bought the Southampton house for $14.5 million in 2006. He has taken out mortgages on the property totaling $13 million, according to property records. There’s a $49,000 lien on the property, filed in 2023 by Gardeneering, a local landscaping company.

As he tries to unload two New York City properties – a townhouse at 144 Waverly Place and a prewar brick building at 59 Morton Street in Greenwich Village – Fuchs has apparently decamped to Miami Beach, Crain’s reported.