The Fight Over the Chrysler Building Escalates

This article has been updated to reflect news developments.

The uncertainty over the Chrysler Building, already in a questionable financial and physical state, grows as legal battles intensify.

In 2019, RFR, a New York-based development firm, and Signa, an Austrian real estate company, purchased the Chrysler Building — but not the land it sits on — for around $150 million. They entered into a ground lease agreement with Cooper Union, which owns the land below the building. As part of the terms, RFR and Signa must pay millions of dollars in rent each year to the private college. But last year, Signa filed for insolvency, and RFR has not paid rent since May, Cooper Union has argued in court.

On Oct. 31, RFR was removed from the Chrysler Building; a judge ordered that Cooper Union could start collecting rent directly from office tenants in the building and that RFR could no longer interfere with Cooper Union’s management and control of the building. Earlier in October, Cooper Union had asked the New York State Supreme Court to order a sheriff or city marshal to remove RFR from the Chrysler Building.

“The simple fact is that RFR and its partners have not paid their rent — to the tune of more than $21 million and counting — and must therefore vacate the building,” said John Ruth, Cooper Union’s vice president of finance and administration, in an emailed statement to The New York Times. For 2024, annual rent is $32.5 million, increasing to $41 million in 2028.

Cooper Union issued a lease termination notice in September, and RFR also filed suit against Cooper Union, claiming that the college sought “to commence an improper and fatally defective eviction proceeding.”