Developer Takes Next Step at Brandon Miller Nolita Site
One of the most notable sites Brandon Miller that tried to develop prior to his death will be moving forward with a different developer and different vision.
Ari Zagdanski’s Kinsmen Property Group filed a land use application for a 322-unit project at 156-166 Bowery Street in Nolita, the Commercial Observer reported. The project is expected to begin going through the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure by year’s end.
Kinsmen is proposing three buildings for the vacant lot, which it moved to demolish two years ago when there were vacant, graffiti-covered buildings on the property. There would be a 29-story building with 124 affordable apartments for seniors, a 26-story building with 99 mixed-income units and 3,200 square feet of retail space, and a 26-story building with 99 mixed-income units and 4,400 square feet of retail space.
Prior to his death, Miller spent months negotiating with Zagdanski and business partner Mark Seigel about how to pivot the stalled life sciences project at the site toward apartments, according to an affidavit filed by Seigel.
Two weeks after Miller’s death, Seigel joined Zagdanski at Fauna in Westhampton “to discuss plans for the new project given Brandon’s death,” according to the affidavit.
In March 2025, Zagdanski sued Miller’s Real Estate Equities Corporation, claiming the firm owed more than $5.3 million in back rent, demolition costs, tax reimbursements and outstanding liens on the property. The landlord terminated REEC’s ground lease in January 2025.
REEC took over the leasehold for the 15,000-square-foot assemblage in February 2021 in a deal valued at $50 million. It agreed to demolish the property within 18 months and complete construction on a six- or seven-story mixed-use office building by February 2026, the suit alleged.
About a year ago, then-Mayor Eric Adams announced the city would move forward with a housing project with Kinsmen, one of three sites offered as alternatives to the canceled Elizabeth Street Garden development.
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