RFR has filed a lawsuit in New York County Supreme Court against the selling ownership entities of 346 Madison Avenue, led by Claudio Del Vecchio, former Brooks Brothers CEO and Luxottica heir. The firm is seeking unspecified damages after claiming that its due diligence information was used to facilitate the sale of the property to another party.
The dispute centers on two properties: the Brooks Brothers store at 346 Madison Avenue and an adjacent office building at 11 East 44th Street. According to RFR’s lawsuit, Del Vecchio began looking to sell these properties before the pandemic. In 2021, JLL listed them for sale.
RFR states it became involved after previous efforts to sell were unsuccessful. The company claims it conducted significant due diligence on the site, which faced complicated zoning and capitalization issues. RFR alleges that it entered into an exclusivity and confidentiality agreement with the seller and shared findings from its research.
According to RFR, a purchase and sale agreement was established but, after the exclusivity period expired, “the agreement was allegedly ‘duplicated into the name of another buyer and executed.’” While RFR did not name this buyer in its complaint, SL Green reportedly entered into contract on a $160 million acquisition of the site earlier this month.
The lawsuit further alleges that confidential data collected by RFR was uploaded to a third-party website accessible by competitors. This alleged breach allowed SL Green to move quickly on acquiring the property after RFR’s exclusivity window closed. RFR described this as similar to a “Trojan Horse.”
David Giancola of JLL is named in the suit as having used RFR’s interest in order to “squeeze out value” from negotiations; however, he is not listed as a defendant.
RFR declined comment on ongoing litigation when contacted by The Promote. Del Vecchio could not be reached for comment by The Real Deal.
The potential impact of this legal action on SL Green’s development plans remains unclear. SL Green has considered developing an office tower up to 800,000 square feet at this location near Grand Central Terminal. The site sits next door to 350 Madison Avenue—a property owned by RFR.
