“The Bachelorette” champ may win construction contract at UES Hirschfeld condo

From left: J.P. Rosenbaum and Elie Hirschfeld talking shop at 218 East 79th Street (credit: Rob Loud, 5WPR) and the exterior of the building (source: PropertyShark)

Real estate mogul Elie Hirschfeld, president of Hirschfeld Properties, was shocked yesterday afternoon to run into Season 7 winner of “The Bachelorette,” J.P. Rosenbaum, at a new Upper East Side Hirschfeld condominium.
 

Rosenbaum, who featured as the honest, passionate workman who stole bachelorette Ashley Hebert’s heart in the ABC show, is a project manager at the Madison Avenue-based J Companies and is in the running to manage construction at the site.
 

Hirschfeld, who has recently seen Rosenbaum on the cover of People magazine, was very impressed with Rosenbaum’s knowledge of New York real estate.
 

“I haven’t watched the show,” he said, “but I was pleasantly surprised to meet him and to learn about his involvement with the show. The J Companies do a lot of fine work.”
 

The development Rosenbaum may oversee is a 14-story condo building at 218 East 79th Street, Hirschfeld said. Demolition has begun at the site, which is currently home to a private townhouse. Hirschfeld and Maxine Dovere, his private partner on the project, have owned the site since 2002, but opted to delay development in light of the financial crisis.

The 2,000-square-foot site will be converted into full-floor luxury units of around 1,400 square feet each. Hirschfeld declined to comment on the timeframe for construction, which he says is still in the early stages.
 

The J Companies is a construction and development firm. Projects listed on its website include work at 40 Gansevoort Street and 141 Fifth Avenue.

A Long Island native, Rosenbaum, who ended his television stint by proposing to Hebert, was not immediately available for comment.