Who

Fuchs is the lower-key half of RFR Holding, the large commercial/residential real estate firm that he runs with Aby Rosen. RFR owns landmark office buildings like Lever House and the Seagram Building, as well as an ever-growing collection of flashy condos.

Backstory

Fuchs and Rosen have led almost parallel lives: Both are German Jews from Frankfurt, they attended kindergarten together, and both their fathers were Holocaust survivors and real estate developers. Like Rosen, Fuchs arrived stateside in 1987 and headed off to earn a business degree at the University of Southern California. The two teamed up in 1991, starting their company with financing from their families back in Germany. In the early '90s—right when the Manhattan real estate market was hitting its low point—the duo went on a well-timed buying binge. They spent the balance of the decade building luxury rental buildings on the Upper East Side in partnership with developer Trevor Davis, including the Michael Graves-designed Impala, the Seville, the Costas Kondylis-designed Eastbridge Landing, and the Wellington Tower. But Fuchs and Rosen only really put themselves on the map in 1999-2000 when they acquired, in rapid succession, two of the city's ultimate trophy buildings: Lever House—the first glass-walled office building built in Manhattan—and the Seagram Building, the only skyscraper Mies van der Rohe ever designed in Manhattan. They've since shifted their focus toward glitzy residential developments and now boast a property portfolio of some 11 million square feet of office and residential space, mostly concentrated in New York and their native Frankfurt.

Of note

In the past few years, RFR has received considerable attention for the fashionable condo and condo-hotels it has built in collaboration with Ian Schrager. First there was the Julian Schnabel-designed Gramercy Park Hotel, which opened in 2006 with a mix of hotel rooms and condos as well as hot spots the Rose Bar and Wakiya. The Rosen-Fuchs-Schrager partnership followed up shortly thereafter with the nearby 23-unit condo 50 Gramercy Park North. They're now nearing completion on 40 Bond, designed by elite Swiss architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron. Other in-progress RFR developments include One Jackson Square—a 35-unit West Village condo featuring an undulating design by William Pedersen; a W hotel-condo in South Beach; and a 61-story hotel-condo named Shangri-La at 610 Lexington designed by Sir Norman Foster. But while it's RFR's sexy buildings that get all the attention, the firm also takes on more ho-hum projects—they recently bought a collection of office buildings in downtown Stamford for $800 million.

Personal

Fuchs recently divorced his wife Kris, who runs home furnishings showroom Suite New York and with whom he has two daughters. He lives on East 82nd Street. Although he bought a condo at the Gramercy Park Hotel in 2004 for $9 million, he never moved in, deciding instead to put it back on the market in early 2007 for $14.5 million.

For the record

Fuchs should not be confused with Michael J. Fuchs, the former CEO of HBO.