Russian developer and socialite Janna Bullock sold an Upper East Side development site to Woodbine Company for $11.9 million — a sliver of the $40 million original asking price.
The vacant lot at 34 East 62nd Street, nestled between Madison and Park avenues among a row of townhouses, was once home to Nicholas Bartha, a doctor who died in a gas explosion that destroyed the property. Bartha was suspected of blowing up the single-family home in an attempt to avoid selling it as part of a divorce settlement.
Bullock, who heads Tappan-based interior design firm RI Group and is known for flipping townhouses in the neighborhood, purchased the property a year later for $8.3 million and filed permits for a new five-story townhouse. However, the project stalled and Sotheby’s International Realty later re-listed the property for $15 million last year, without the promise of a new building.
The Rye-based Woodbine Company has not yet filed plans for A Property On 62nd Street, and representatives were not immediately available for comment. Bullock and Sotheby’s brokers Nikki Field and Patricia Wheatley, who had the listing, also could not be reached.
The site can hold up to 8,000 square feet, but the purchase of additional air rights would allow for a more than 14,000-square-foot structure.