Related Sells Loan On Brandon Miller’s Last Project

10 July 2025

A new lender has stepped in at an East Harlem office building, Brandon Miller’s last project developed before his death.

Raven Capital Management bought the loan secured by 2226 Third Avenue from Related Companies. The original loan amount was $40 million, according to PincusCo, which first reported the sale. It was unclear how much the investment management firm paid for the loan or how much outstanding debt there is.

Raven Capital and REEC executives did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Miller’s Real Estate Equities Corporation, or REEC, bought the leasehold for the property in 2020 for $27 million and developed a 10-story office building for life sciences tenants. It wrapped up construction on the 130,000-square-foot project in September 2023, a little less than a year before Miller died by suicide.

The East Harlem project was among the city’s 10 biggest new building applications for 2020, one of only two in Manhattan developments to make the list. Leasing appeared to get off to a slow start, but land owner Lawrence Khedouri said REEC is up-to-date on payments.

“I think it was a good investment for them and they’re hanging onto it for dear life,” Khedouri said. He said he does not know how many tenants there are in the building.

Elie Schwartz’s Nightingale Properties previously signed a contract with REEC to purchase the land lease, which had a 2025 deadline to close. But Schwartz later pleaded guilty to wire fraud for his role in a multimillion-dollar crowdfunding scandal and was sentenced to 87 months in prison.

Some of REEC’s other projects have run into problems since Miller’s death. The owner of a Nolita property once slated for development by REEC sued the developer and its principals for abandoning the ill-fated office project and terminated the ground lease.

Raven Capital, which was founded in 2008 by former Merrill Lynch executive Josh Green, provided a $60.5 million land loan to REEC in 2022 for that property.

At 1 St. Mark’s Place, an East Village office project, REEC fell behind on payments. But construction continued at the nine-story building and leasing has begun.

REEC has gone dark since Brandon’s death. The remaining principal, Mark Seigel, has not responded to requests for comment and the company’s website is now hidden behind a password.