The Real Deal

• Email this article
• print
• Comments(1)

Catsimatidis at a crossroads

John Catsimatidis

Billionaire businessman and potential mayoral candidate John Catsimatidis, in an interview with The Real Deal, spoke about his plans to build as many as 5,000 housing units in the city. On Myrtle Avenue in Downtown Brooklyn, his Red Apple Group is building its first mixed-use development, which will have as many as 1,000 units of housing and about 270,000 feet of commercial space. Catsimatidis, whose parents brought him to the U.S. from Greece when he was 10 months old, is president and CEO of the privately-held Red Apple Group, Inc., which includes Red Apple Real Estate, Gristede's supermarkets and United Refining (which operates Kwik Fill and Country Fair gas stations and stores).

You are thinking about running for mayor?
I am giving it very serious consideration. I am very concerned for the city, for the post-Bloomberg era. The city has come a long way in 10 years and it can go backwards.

Why did you change from a Democrat to a Republican?
I changed parties because I am pro-business and pro-people. In the near future we plan to create an exploratory committee, maybe in January or February.

What are some of the problems the next mayor will face?
Well, I believe New York City is the greatest city in the world. But one of my concerns is that we are creating affordable housing for working people, which is good, and we are creating housing in Manhattan on the high end. But we need a program for creating housing for the middle class. I don't want to lose the middle class to Connecticut or New Jersey.

How would you try to build middle-class housing?
Through transit-oriented development. We have trillions of dollars in infrastructure near trains. We should upzone near them, and provide special credits. We can't have a city with just boutiques and banks. We have to find a way to maintain our neighborhoods with essential services.

Why have you made nearly $1 million in donations to local and national political candidates, mostly Democrats, over the past 15 years. I enjoy politics and I enjoy talking to politicians. I don't know how much I spent. It was my money and I felt it was an education in politics.

What's the size of your real estate holdings in New York City? It is less than $500 million in the city.

What worries you the most about the turbulence in the real estate market?
We are working on a big development in Brooklyn now. My biggest concern is that the real estate market stays up and the banks don't get scared and stop giving loans to consumers and lenders. An executive at a major bank said to me recently, "our construction loan department is fully open," but he confided that "we haven't made a commitment in three months."

Can you talk about what drew you to Downtown Brooklyn? Downtown Brooklyn is exploding with development. As I was driving with my son he commented that it looked like Manhattan.

What are the advantages of developing there? People will be able to buy an apartment for $800 to $900 per square foot, as compared to Manhattan, where it is $1,200 to $1,500 per square foot. People laughed when I bought that development 20 years ago.

Have you done any other mixed-use projects like the one in Downtown Brooklyn? It is the first project of that size, about 1.3 to 1.4 million square feet. But we are looking at another one in Coney Island and another in uptown Manhattan. Over the next 10 years we expect to build 5,000 units (of housing).

Why are you closing Gristede's supermarkets? We are closing some Gristede's stores in the city that were no longer (performing well). We sold seven to Duane Reade. That is it right now. Interview by Adam Pincus