Manhattan grocery mogul pays $16.5 million for lot in downtown St. Petersburg

Downtown Sf. Petersburg
Downtown Sf. Petersburg

A real estate company run by a Manhattan grocery mogul John Catsimatidis paid $16.5 million for vacant two-acre lot in downtown St. Petersburg.

New York-based Red Apple Group, which Catsimatidis owns, is planning to develop a 41-story residential tower on the two-acre lot.

The land is located directly across Central Avenue in downtown St. Petersburg from the Florida Arcade, a 15,000-square-foot building that Red Apple bought in February for $2.625 million. Red Apple hasn’t detailed plans for the Florida Arcade building.

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Catsimatidis ranks 194th on the Forbes magazine list of the wealthiest Americans with a personal net worth of $3.3 billion. He owns a Manhattan grocery store chain called Gristedes. He has familial ties to St. Petersburg, where his wife’s siblings and grandmother reside.

Red Apple’s investment in the two-acre lot across from the Florida Arcade building may set the stage for the company’s development of offices, hotel rooms and retail space as well as a high-rise residential building.

Red Apple’s $16.5 million investment in the two-acre lot is comparable to the $17.25 million acquisition of a similarly sized parcel in downtown St. Petersburg by Kolter Group of Palm Beach Gardens, where Kolter is building a 41-story condominium called ONE St. Petersburg. [Tampa Bay Times] Mike Seemuth