Would-be owners of a “Gold Coast” lot emptied when a suicidal doctor blew up his 19th century brownstone in July have until 3 p.m. tomorrow to submit their bids to buy the Manhattan property.

The new owner will be decided by Thursday, and the sales contract signed by October 4, according to Brown Harris Stevens, the brokerage firm that is listing the East 62nd Street property for $8 million. Situated in the Upper East Side Historic District, plans for the lot must be cleared by the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission. That agency sets guidelines for the dimensions, and must approve the blueprints of new buildings going up in any of the city’s 70-plus landmarked districts.

“The façade composition, the scale, the materials, and the details on the outside should have some sort of relationship to the historical buildings in the district,” a commission spokeswoman, Lisi de Bourbon, said. “That relationship can be abstract or literal.”

Brown Harris Stevens would not comment on the number or the size of the bids that had come in by the end of last week, or the process that will determine how a bid would be accepted.

A sales agent with another real estate brokerage, Halstead Property, said bidders would likely be submitting offers, in addition to detailed financial statements to show their “financial ability to move forward with the deal.”

Toni Simon, an associate broker at Halstead who specializes in the selling townhouses and small buildings, said the asking price, which works out to about $1,000 a square foot of potential building space, sounded too high. Still, she said, the on-the-block lot is in one of Manhattan’s toniest neighborhoods, and a home built there could fetch as much as $2,000 a square foot on the open market. She said the lot, at 34 E. 62nd St., would likely appeal to small developers looking to turn a handsome profit on the rebuilt townhouse. “There’s also a possibility that it could go to a family, who has been looking for a while, and who has an architect ready to go,” Ms. Simon said.

To win over the Landmarks Preservation Commission, she said the building should blend well with the street’s brick and limestone buildings. “I suspect they’re not going to approve something ultra-modern,” she said. “It doesn’t have to be a duplicate of what was there, but it’s probably not going to be a Richard Meier building.” Mr. Meier is a contemporary architect known for his glass- and aluminum-heavy designs.

On the morning of July 10, a gas explosion leveled the four-story townhouse where its owner, Nicholas Bartha, lived and worked. Dr. Bartha, a 66-year-old internist, is suspected of tampering with the gas lines, and causing the explosion. Inside the building when it was reduced to rubble, Dr. Bartha was mortally wounded and investigators were unable to interview him before he died from his injuries on July 15. At the time of the incident, he was in the middle of an acrimonious divorce, and had been court ordered to sell the $6 million home, and divide the proceeds with his wife, Cordula Hahn, 64.

Ms. Hahn and Dr. Bartha’s two grown daughters, Serena, 29, and Johanna, 27, are reported to be among the beneficiaries of the estate. Money is also owed to the city, which cleaned up the rubble, and there are several pending and planned lawsuits against the estate.

James Savage, a resident of 30 E. 62nd St., the cooperative apartment building next door, said he’s suing to get compensation to repair his smoke-damaged, two-bedroom apartment. Mr. Savage and his wife, Marie, were not home at the time of the blast, which killed their cat, Rosie. He said he’s heard that the private Links Club, the vacant lot’s other adjacent building, may be interested in purchasing Dr. Bartha’s property. A club representative could not be reached immediately for comment.

“I hope whoever moves there is quiet, and that they’re permanent, and not transient, residents,” Mr. Savage said.

Referring to Dr. Bartha, whom he did not know personally, Mr. Savage added, “He was quiet. There was very little traffic in and out of the building. As far as neighbors go, he was a good one, until he went and blew himself and everything around him up.”