When Brandon Miller, a second generation developer and principal of Real Estate Equities Corporation, died by suicide on July 3, the tragedy exposed not only a personal drama but a tangled web of debts and real estate deals gone bad.
His homes and projects — some completed, some never even begun — spanned New York City and the Hamptons. The Real Deal put together a map to help readers keep it all straight.
3 St. Marks Place
REEC bought the East Village leasehold in 2017 for $29M from Edward Gabay, planning a 53,000-sf office building. In 2021, foundations had yet to be dug, and Madison Capital Realty moved to foreclose. Parkview Financial rescued the project with a $70M refi the next year. The 9-story building is still under construction.
118 10th Avenue
REEC bought the Chelsea leasehold in a 2017 deal valued at $21M. Two years later an entity tied to GDS Development Management and Swedish firm Klovern AB took it over. Plans for an office building were derailed by Covid, and the leasehold went back to Brandon Miller in December 2023. He immediately borrowed $1.5M against the property from Douglas Teitelbaum, who took control of it under the entity DIA Family Holdings after Miller’s death in July. Teitelbaum then put the entity into bankruptcy.
2226 Third Avenue
After buying the leasehold in 2020 for $27M, REEC lined up a sale with Elie Schwartz’s Nightingale Properties. The closing deadline was 2025. But Nightingale was rocked by accusations that Schwartz moved investor funds into his personal account. The East Harlem office project has 130,000 square feet built out for life-science tenants but was still vacant at the beginning of the summer.
313-315 West 125th Street
REEC took over the Harlem leasehold in 2015 in a deal valued at $5M. In 2018, Terra Capital Partners injected $20M in preferred equity on a portfolio including the West 125th Street property and 286 Lenox Avenue. The next year it issued a $4.7M senior loan. Terra was acquired in 2021 by Mavik Capital Management, and the debt ended up with East West Bank, which foreclosed on the property in 2022, citing a $14.6M balance. Lakewood, New Jersey, investor Mark Tress bought the leasehold for $3.6M.
196 Orchard Street
REEC teamed up with Magnum Real Estate Group in 2015 to buy a $75M assemblage on the Lower East Side for a luxury condo development. The project was completed in 2017.
1228 Madison Avenue
REEC acquired the ground lease in 2017 for $15.6M but appears to have exited the Upper East Side condop project before it was complete.
958 Madison Avenue
REEC secured financing and almost closed a deal to buy the Upper East Side leasehold for two floors in 2016, with the option to purchase the entire property, but the owner backed out.
162-166 Bowery
REEC took over the leasehold for the 15,000-sf assemblage in a 2020 deal valued at $50M. In 2022, the firm filed plans for a 73,000-sf, mixed-use commercial building and landed a $60.5M loan from Raven Capital Management, but progress at the Lower Manhattan site stalled.
25 Cobb Isle Road
Brandon Miller bought the Water Mill property in 2011 for $3.2M and built a mansion for his family in 2013. He took out several mortgages on the Hamptons home, which was the scene of his suicide. His widow, Candice Miller, has listed the estate for $15.5M. She was sued in July for the unpaid $829,000 balance on one of the mortgages.
137 Franklin Street
REEC signed a 150-year ground lease in 2010 and built a three-unit co-op with a sellout price of $23M. Miller grabbed the first sale, paying $3.9M in 2013 for the 4,000-square-foot Tribeca penthouse. He sold it for $9M in 2021. Donald Jaffe, a lender to Miller on that project and the Hamptons home, claims Miller’s widow owes him the balance on the loan: $3.6M.
737 Park Avenue
The Millers moved to a five-bedroom, $47,000-a-month rental on the ritzy Upper East Side after selling their Tribeca penthouse for $9M in 2021. Candice Miller vacated the apartment in August and is being sued for $195,000 in unpaid rent.
50 South Pointe Drive
Candice Miller moved to this $10M South Florida condo owned by Alexander von Fürstenberg after her husband’s death. She is friends with von Fürstenberg’s wife, Alison von Fürstenberg, also known as the model Ali Kay.
379 Ocean Road
REEC bought the Bridgehampton property in 2012 for $4.7M, then developed it and sold the 2.5-acre Hamptons estate for $14M in 2016.
29 Cobb Isle Road
REEC bought the Water Mill property in 2010 from the same owners as 25 Cobb Isle and developed and sold it for $10.8M in 2013. The six-bedroom home is listed again for $14.5M.