John Catsimatidis wants to replace Gristedes in Battery Park City with new tenant

The number of Gristedes stores in Battery Park City could soon drop from two to one.

John Catsimatidis‘ supermarket chain has two locations in the neighborhood at 71 and 315 South End Avenue. He told The Real Deal he hopes to rent out the store at the former address, adding it does not make much sense to have two located so close to each other.

“Sometimes it doesn’t pay to have two supermarkets, so we’re considering the one that we own, renting it out for another purpose,” he said. “Not a food purpose.”

Catsimatidis did not specify what type of tenant he was looking for, saying only that he intends to find a business outside of the food industry that can afford the rent. He maintained that the space was too small to house a proper grocery store. Gristedes has occupied the storefront for more than 20 years.

The Gristedes space features nearly 7,800 square feet on the ground floor and 1,870 square feet on the lower level. Catsimatidis’ firm Red Apple Group owns the building as well.

“It’s more of a convenience store, and it’s not really meant to be a supermarket,” he said. “We made a mistake on that, so if we found somebody that has interest in it, we may sell it.”

A CPEX Real Estate team led by Tim King is marketing the space.

Red Apple Group was recently ranked the fifth largest private company in New York based on revenue from 2016,  while Catsimatidis himself was recently ranked 248th on the Forbes 400 list with an estimated net worth of $3.1 billion.