John Catsimatidis Wants to “Get the Truth Out”

“When people are running, there’s the opportunity,” John Catsimatidis advised the audience at the Mortgage Bankers Association of New York’s recent 5th Annual Real Estate Lending Summit. Once the acquisition opportunity has been given its due, he continued, “then you need to wait for things to turn around.”

Catsimatidis would know. The chairman, CEO and president of Red Apple Group began buying and selling commercial properties in his junior year of college. By age 25, he owned 10 grocery stores in Northern Manhattan.

Over the past half century, he has diversified not only beyond New York real estate—familiar locally as the owner of the Gristedes supermarket chain, Catsimatidis has lately been involved with multifamily development—but beyond real estate, period. Red Apple has also amassed holdings in the energy, finance and insurance sectors, and Forbes has stated his personal worth at $3.1 billion.

A Bill Clinton Democrat who is also a strong supporter of fellow New Yorker Donald Trump, Catsimatidis has diversified into politics. He ran for mayor in 2013, and hosts a radio show in which he interviews both New York and national political figures. The radio broadcasts are also available as podcasts.

He takes no salary for the radio show, he told the MBAofNY audience, and has no sponsors. “The motto of my show is, ‘Get the truth out,’” said Catsimatidis.

On or off the air, Catsimatidis doesn’t mince words. He blamed the Amazon pullback from plans to build a headquarters campus in Long Island City on “five of the dumbest politicians I’ve ever seen.”

Alluding to widespread reports of substandard living conditions at New York City Housing Authority-managed apartments, and the authority’s claim that it will take decades to remedy those conditions, Catsimatidis told the MBAofNY audience, “What goes on at NYCHA is a crime. You have 400,000 people living like a Third World country and nobody gives a damn.”

In fact, Catsimatidis believes he has a solution—and has proposed it to Housing Secretary Ben Carson. Take the top 30 real estate families in New York, give them each two NYCHA buildings to manage and “I guarantee they’ll be fixed in two years,” he said at the MBAofNY event.

Click here for MBAofNY’s video of John Catsimatidis’ keynote address.

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