The land owner of a Nolita assemblage that Brandon Miller once planned to develop filed plans to demolish the vacant buildings on the site.
Ari Zagdanski’s Kinsmen Property Group filed seven demolition permits for 156-166 Bowery Street in Nolita, a 15,000-square-foot assemblage. Miller’s Real Estate Equities Corporation took over the leasehold in a 2020 deal valued at $50 million.
In 2022, the firm filed plans for a 73,000-square-foot, mixed-use commercial building and landed a $60.5 million loan from Raven Capital Management, but progress at the Lower Manhattan site stalled. Kinsmen refiled the plans originally filed by REEC.
At a recent visit to the property, the buildings were covered in graffiti, the black metal security gates were shuttered and electrical wires dangled from open windows. It was unclear whether REEC still owns the ground lease, or whether it was current on payments.
Zagdanski, who comes from a construction and development family with properties in Toronto and Ontario, did not respond to a request for comment last week on the status of the project.
Kinsmen, a joint venture between Madison Group and State Building Group, bought the low-lying buildings 162-166 Bowery and air rights in 2016 for $23.5 million. The buildings were home to the kinds of lighting-supply stores that have long characterized the gritty strip.
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The next year, it bought the property at 156-160 Bowery for $30 million. The properties are low-rise buildings with a total of three apartments and three commercial units, according to city data. The 8,000 square feet of retail space in the buildings was previously occupied by home decor seller Lighting by Gregory.
Miller died at the age of 43 on July 3 at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital, leaving behind a tangled web of unfinished real estate projects and delinquent payments. REEC has gone dark since Brandon’s death and the company’s website is now hidden behind a password, raising questions about the future of REEC and its projects.