Not surprisingly, there’s a little more nuance to last week’s news that developer (and likely mayoral candidate) John Catsimatidis was putting his 660-unit development on hold than what New York Magazine reported. Reached by phone on Friday, Catsimatidis conceded that he was “taking a hard look” at the project in light of the current environment, and implied that it would be pretty silly of him not to. His Red Apple Group owns the land outright, so there’s no mortgage burn to worry about. In the meantime, the first-time home-buyers from Manhattan that he sees as his target market now have to come up with a $150,000 down payment for that $750,000 apartment, rather than, say, $75,000 when the project was conceived. In the end, though, it’ll probably come down to retail. “If we can land some strong retail tenants in advance, we’ll go ahead and do this,” he said. Duane Reade has already signed up. How ’bout it, Whole Foods?
Catsimatidis Puts Myrtle Build on Hold! [Brownstoner]
Catsimatidis Puts Myrtle Build on Hold! [Brownstoner]
Catsimatidis on Myrtle Revealed [Brownstoner] GMAP