Christian Candy looks to flip Upper East Side mansion for $55M

London developer scraps renovation plan; paid $35M for landmarked former art gallery last year

Christian Candy and images of 19 East 70th Street
Christian Candy and images of 19 East 70th Street

London developer Christian Candy is ready to part ways with his landmarked Upper East Side limestone. He listed it for $55 million — just three months after filing plans for a $10.6 million renovation to return the 17,000-square-foot property at 19 East 70th Street to single-family occupancy, as Luxury Listings NYC reported.

Candy has owned the building for less than a year, paying $35 million for it in August 2013. In 2011, the site, which had housed the Knoedler & Company art gallery, sold for $31 million.

Corcoran Group brokers Maria Pashby and Louis Buckworth have the listing. Sources told the New York Post that a potential buyer has already been found. They also said the Frick Collection’s planned expansion could block the views of Candy’s mansion, and may have led him to abandon renovations.

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Before it was an art gallery, David H. Morris and wife Alice Vanderbilt Morris had commissioned it to be built as the Morris Mansion. [NYP, 3rd item] — Mark Maurer