Private equity fund giant Leon Black and his wife Debra are buying an Upper East Side townhouse for $50 million.
Black and his wife, Who Is A Broadway producer as well as co-founder and chairman of the board at the Melanoma Research Alliance, are reportedly buying the former Knoedler & Company art gallery, which closed after a scandal in 2009.
The 17,000-square-foot Italian Renaissance-style home at 19 East 70th Street last traded hands when London developer Christian Candy bought it for $35 million in 2013. Even though Candy got the permits to renovate the house, he put it back on the market for $55 million earlier this year.
The 104-year-old building is said to be in need of more than $20 million worth of renovations. Black, a leveraged buyout specialist, co-founded M&A firm Apollo Global Management in 1990. [NYP, 1st] — Claire Moses