John Catsimatidis

New minor league baseball team officially headed to Staten Island next year

Richmond County Bank Ballpark, photo by Doug Kerr on Wikimedia

July 26, 2021

New minor league baseball team officially headed to Staten Island next year

America's pastime will return to Staten Island next year. Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Friday a plan to reopen the former Staten Island Yankees stadium with a new minor league baseball team. The Richmond County Bank Ballpark did not open in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic. This year, the waterfront stadium sat empty after Major League Baseball removed the "Baby Bombers" from its parent team as part of a reorganization of its farm system.
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Coney Island’s ‘Miami-inspired’ Ocean Dreams rental project tops out

Developer John Catsimatidis hopes the Ocean Dreams project will eventually include three more towers, which require city approval. Rendering by Pace/Hill West Architects

October 15, 2018

Coney Island’s ‘Miami-inspired’ Ocean Dreams rental project tops out

By Michelle Cohen

Last spring, 6sqft revealed new renderings of grocery store king (Red Apple, Gristede's) John Catsimatidis' 425-unit Coney Island rental project at 3514 Surf Avenue known as Ocean Dreams. According to The Real Deal, Catsimatidis’ Red Apple Group secured a construction loan for $130 million from Bank of America for the project back in June. Now, the New York Times has reported that the pair of 21-story luxury apartment towers overlooking the Atlantic on the island's western end has topped out and is scheduled to open next summer.
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April 30, 2018

See new renderings of ‘Ocean Dreams,’ Coney Island’s wavy Surf Avenue rental towers

By Michelle Cohen

New renderings have been revealed showing real estate mogul John Catsimatidis' Coney Island rental project at 3514 Surf Avenue known as Ocean Dreams, shown here courtesy of CityRealty. The American Institute of Architecture (AIA), which is currently taking votes for their People's Choice award in Brooklyn, has included the 425-unit rental complex among the contenders. The building is being developed by Catsimatidis' Red Apple Group. Catsimatidis, who has big dreams indeed for the development, proposed a trolley-like streetcar service to access the Stillwell Avenue subway station, and once said he wanted to make the development look like Miami Beach.
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January 5, 2018

New renderings unveiled of John Catsimatidis’ 32-story Downtown Brooklyn rental ‘The Eagle’

By Devin Gannon

Leasing has officially commenced at 86 Fleet Place, the final residential tower of John Catsimatidis' four-building development along Myrtle Avene, a site the billionaire first purchased from Long Island University in 1982. Dubbed by Catsimatidis' Red Apple Group as "The Eagle," the 32-story 440-unit building sits in between Downtown Brooklyn and Fort Greene and offers studios for $2,044/month, one-bedrooms for $2,743/month and two-bedrooms starting at $4,050/month. As CityRealty learned, residences will feature floor-to-ceiling windows, custom oak cabinets and Brazilian stone countertops.
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John Catsimatidis wants his Coney Island development to have its own street car

A rendering of Ocean Dreams from January via Dattner Architects

September 11, 2017

John Catsimatidis wants his Coney Island development to have its own street car

By Devin Gannon

As part of his “Ocean Dreams” development in Coney Island, billionaire real estate mogul John Catsimatidis plans to build a streetcar that would link the mixed-use project to the Stillwell Avenue subway station in Coney Island. Developed by Catsimatidis’ Red Apple Group, the project at 3514 Surf Avenue includes three buildings between West 36th and West 37th Streets that will feature retail space, 440 market-rate apartments and a 254-car garage. As the Coney Island News first reported, Catsimatidis said the streetcar would be available to everyone, not just residents of his development.
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Rendering of 86 Fleet Place via Goldstein, Hill & West (L); Construction as of October 2016, via CityRealty

January 26, 2017

Live in John Catsimatidis’ curvy Downtown Brooklyn rental tower from $833/month

By Dana Schulz

Way back in 1982, the CEO and owner of Red Apple Group, John Catsimatidis (you may know him better as the billionaire owner of Gristedes or for his failed Republican run in the last mayoral election) paid $500,000 for a 2.5-acre, four-block site in Downtown Brooklyn, on the western edge of Fort Greene. Thirty-five years later, construction is wrapping up on the final, and by far the tallest, of the four-tower development. The curving glass building at 86 Fleet Place was designed by Goldstein, Hill & West and will rise 32 stories/350 feet and house 440 rentals, 29 of which are set aside as affordable and have just come online through the city's affordable housing lottery. They range from $833/month studios to $1,247/month three-bedrooms and are available for those earning 45 to 60 percent of the area media income.
Find out if you qualify here

January 6, 2017

Plans filed for a 21-story Coney Island ‘Dreams’ project on the boardwalk

By Michelle Cohen

Developer John Catsimatidis' Red Apple Group has filed plans for a 21-story tower on a Surf Avenue parcel that he purchased last summer according to Brooklyn Daily; the tower is part of a three-building Coney Island project that will likely include 415 apartments and retail. In the billionaire grocery mogul's typically patient fashion, he has slowly been acquiring the Boardwalk-adjacent lots between West 35th and West 37th streets for the project, called Ocean Dreams, since 2005.
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July 23, 2015

Construction Begins on John Catsimatidis’ Curvy Rental Tower at 86 Fleet Place in Fort Greene

By Ondel Hylton

Construction has begun on the final building of the four-tower development on the western edge of Fort Greene. The 32-story tower at 86 Fleet Place will house 440 rental units and will be the culmination of a 15-year redevelopment of a low-slung, Robert Moses-era retail strip along Myrtle Avenue. The developer of 86 Fleet, and three other sibling buildings to the east, is Red Apple Group's CEO and owner John Catsimatidis, who we might better remember as the billionaire Republican candidate in the last mayoral election and the owner of the oft-maligned Gristedes grocery store chain. According to the Wall Street Journal, Red Apple picked up the 2.5-acre, four-block site for $500,000 from Long Island University in 1982. The site spans 900 feet along the southern frontage of Myrtle Avenue, between Flatbush Avenue Extension and Ashland Place, and shares its blocks with the Toren condominium to the west and the Fred Trump-built University Towers complex to the south.
More details on the development

May 20, 2014

Catsimatidis’s 30 Year Development Plan on Myrtle Avenue is Finally Underway

By Aisha Carter

Patience is a virtue; one that billionaire tycoon and former mayoral candidate John Catsimatidis clearly has in droves. Cats demonstrated this when he had the foresight to purchase a block of land on Myrtle Avenue in Fort Greene, over 30 years ago, back when the street was appropriately nicknamed Murder Avenue. Not many people would have seen the value in property in an area where Cats jokes that he had to carry two guns “just in case one of the guns runs out of bullets”. However, Cats saw it as a worthy investment. And boy was he right. A few decades and a change of zoning laws have allowed Cats to turn this once terrifying spot into the building site of 4 residential skyscrapers with retail stores on the ground floor. Not a bad deal for a piece of property purchased for under a million dollars says the understatement of the century.
Learn more about Catsimatidis' development project here

May 19, 2014

Your Daily Link Fix: Samsung to Increase Phone Security; 16 Women to Watch in NY Tech

By Aisha Carter

The Grace Building Refinanced: Bryant Park’s neighbor has just been evaluated for nearly 3x its previous appraisal, leaving its owners with some fat pockets. NASDAQ has the details on this incredible refinancing. Manhattan Leases More Gym Space: New York City’s gotta keep it tight and right. The Real Deal has the real… deal on the […]