Positive indicators may be leading to too much optimism
From the September issue: Some people are telling me that the recession is over and the real estate market is back. I worry that they are wearing rose-colored glasses.
To prove the point, just listen to John Catsimatidis, the chairman and CEO of Gristedes supermarket and United Refining Company, an independent refiner and owner-operator of 375 retail gasoline and convenience stores. “I am wealthier and financially stronger than I have been in my four decades in business,” Catsimatidis said. “Yet I am worried about the economy, and especially the state of commercial real estate.”
Catsimatidis is also the developer of a new residential rental building, the Andrea, at 218 Myrtle Avenue on the edge of Fort Greene and Downtown Brooklyn. Appearing on my show recently, he remarked that while units are renting, they come with concessions of up to two free months and at lower rents than he expected when he began construction in 2008. [more]
