Nicholas Bartha

Last Monday morning, this reporter (and hundreds of others) raced over to 34 East 62nd Street, where firefighters were still trying to put out the flames, following a massive explosion. Details began to emerge: it was not a terrorist attack, but allegedly the work of a distraught doctor, Nicholas Bartha.

Of course, there was the rambling 14-page email, that was first published in its entirety on The Real Estate. Also, The Observer interviewed Mark Baum, the doctor's real estate broker of the past six years, who received the email that morning.

Now, the author of that email, the suspected culprit in this headline-grabbing tragedy, has died. On Saturday night, Dr. Bartha--who had been in a coma for almost a week--passed away at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell hospital. He was 66.

Certainly, the Dr. Bartha story had all the ingredients of a Manhattan media frenzy: divorce, madness, and a 19th century townhouse exploding on a tony, Upper East Side block. The New York Times had at least 10 reporters working on a single story, and the local tabloids conjured up such headlines like "Dr. Death" and "Honey, I Blew Up The House."  read more »

At 7:30 a.m.  read more »

At 7:30 a.m.  read more »

For anyone interested, The Real Estate just posted the letter that Nicholas Bartha apparently emailed to George Pataki, Arlen Specter and Arnold Schwarzenegger (among many others) shortly before allegedly blowing up his Upper East Side townhouse. -- Josh Benson

• It takes The Times ten reporters to write a story on Dr. Nicholas Bartha, the man suspected of annihilating his Upper East Side townhouse in a suicide attempt. But the article's most fascinating anecdote--Bartha's last-minute note to Prudential Douglas Elliman VP Mark Baum--was broken yesterday on The Real Estate. Interestingly, Dr. Bartha also CC-ed Fox News' Sean Hannity, Governors Pataki and Schwarzenegger, and (of course) his ex-wife. (The New York Times)
• Hugh Stubbins Jr., architect of New York's famously sharp and free-flowing Citigroup Center, is dead at 94. His last building, Yokohama's Landmark Tower (above), is Japan's tallest.(New York Times)
• Asking a developer to build you a $500,000 "dream home" is a great idea. Unless, of course, you're a state assemblyperson, and you want the house "for little to nothing" in exchange for steering "a city-owned vacant lot" in Brooklyn to your developer. (To make matters worse, the lot was meant for affordable housing.) But Assemblywoman Diane Gordon's attorney swears "she never profited one cent from this," which will probably prove true. (AP, via NY Daily News)
• In two weeks, Holiday Inn Express says it will open a 115-room hotel in Park Slope. The problem (besides the obvious issue of Brooklyn Holiday Inn Expresses), is that the new hotel is in Gowanus. The company insists: "it really is" in Park Slope - "it's on the border." Maybe these folks should solve their neighborhood issues before they open that second Brooklyn hotel. (NY1)
• Get excited for public-record co-op sales. Get very excited. Then get concerned, because "the Department of Finance wants to make all real-estate transactions transparent." (New York Magazine)
- Max Abelson  read more »
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This morning, Prudential Douglas Elliman broker Mark Baum received an email from Dr. Nicholas Bartha, the owner and occupant of 34 East 62nd Street, the site of today's massive explosion.

"I read the email at around 8:50 or 8:55," said Mr. Baum, who became concerned for the doctor's welfare. "I reported it to 911 right away."

However, the explosion occurred at approximately 8:45 a.m, and Dr. Bartha was later found in the rubble, still alive.

It has been reported that Dr. Bartha's estranged wife also received the rambling, 15-page email, but not how many others did, too.

"The email will eventually be made public," said Mr. Baum, who did not go into details.

Mr. Baum had worked with Dr. Bartha in the past, renting out at least one of the apartments in the four-story townhouse, according to a real estate source.

" We had a business relationship.," said Mr. Baum. "After six years, you can build a relationship a little bit outside of the business. Not that we socialized much, but we had a smooth business relationship."

"He was definitely hurt by the divorce," said Mr. Baum.

- Michael Calderone