Kinsmen Property Group Plans to Bring 322 New Homes to 156-166 Bowery

Kinsmen Property Group, a New York City-based real estate development and investment firm, has big plans to build 322 homes along the Bowery in Manhattan’s Nolita neighborhood, Commercial Observer has learned.

After previously filing plans to demolish a 15,000-square-foot set of vacant buildings at 156-166 Bowery in October 2024, Kinsmen has now filed a land use application with the Department of City Planning to transform the now-vacant lot into three mixed-use, mixed-income buildings with a total of 322 homes, according to the firm. 

If approved, the three buildings would comprise a 29-story building with 124 affordable apartments for seniors; a 26-story building with 99 mixed-income units and 3,260 square feet of ground-floor retail space; and another 26-story building with 99 mixed-income units and 4,391 square feet of ground-floor retail space.

The project, which would be designed by architects Kohn Pedersen Fox and Beyer Blinder Belle, is expected to enter public review through a Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP) by the end of the year.

“We are excited to bring more than 300 new homes to Lower Manhattan at a time when housing is urgently needed across the city,” Ari Zagdanski, principal of Kinsmen, said in a statement. “This project is designed to honor the rich history of the Bowery while also addressing the city’s housing needs head-on.”

The site at 156-166 Bowery has already been through various different planned projects. In 2022, previous owner Real Estate Equities Corporation (REEC) — which had signed a 99-year ground lease for the properties in 2020 for $50 million — filed plans to construct a seven-story, 73,000-square-foot retail and office building on the site. Construction on that project eventually stalled.

It’s unclear whether REEC still owns the ground lease at the Nolita site, which Kinsmen bought in a set of separate purchases in 2016 and 2017 for a total of $53.5 million, according to records.

Local Councilmember Christopher Marte, who is partnering with Kinsmen in the approval process of the new filing, said the project is a “critical benchmark” for the Bowery area, as it will bring the same number of senior affordable units that were slated to replace Elizabeth Street Garden a few blocks away. Plans to build housing on the garden were officially scrapped earlier this month.

“Soon, hundreds of seniors and families will be able to affordably live downtown, all while benefiting from the beauty, respite and community that the garden has to offer,” Marte said in a statement. “I am excited to continue my unwavering support for this project and the garden alike, both critical resources New Yorkers need to thrive.”

Isabelle Durso can be reached at idurso@commercialobserver.com.