Cats $cratch fever: Landlords forced to chase rent from billionaire "John Catsimatidis" mayoral candidate

EXCLUSIVE

• By JOSH KOSMAN
• Last Updated: 8:51 AM, August 22, 2013 
• Posted: 11:53 PM, August 21, 2013

Billionaire businessman and mayoral hopeful John Catsimatidis is in the middle of an expensive media campaign to introduce himself to New Yorkers.
One group that needs no introduction to the supermarket mogul is the landlords of some of his Gristedes supermarkets — and that’s not necessarily a good thing.
Landlords have filed 170 lawsuits against Gristedes in New York’s civil court over the past three decades — most for being late on paying rent, an examination of court records by The Post has revealed.
In many of the cases, Gristedes complains of being overbilled by the landlord, for water or another service, and withholds rent.

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Republican mayoral candidate John Catsimatidis’ Gristedes supermarket chain has had far more

disputes with landlords than rivals—which has not endeared him to some landlords.

This, of course, prompts landlords to sue and, in a legal dance that buildings owners claim is all too familiar to them, Gristedes ends up paying all of the back rent, but not before a lot of agita — and legal bills.

One commercial real estate lawyer said his client at this point will not settle over legal fees and plans to force Gristedes to pay them all back rent or face trial.
A Gristedes landlord, who spoke to The Post on the condition of anonymity, said, “He doesn’t pay until you sue him.”
Just this year, Gristedes, Manhattan’s largest supermarket chain, with 29 locations, has faced four lawsuits over late rent, court records show.
They include:
* The nonpayment of $62,166 in rent on the supermarket at 90 Maiden Lane.
* A case brought by Columbia University over rent due on a store at 2704 Broadway that was settled for about $100,000.
* The landlord for a Gristedes store at 307 W. 26th St. sued over $96,000 in back rent and other charges and recently settled.
A landlord is now suing Catsimatidis for up to $300,000 in New York State Supreme Court over a 2011 case, charging that he broke a five-year lease when closing the iconic Jefferson Market in the West Village.
The Catsimatidis camp points out that there were specific issues in all these cases that prompted it to stop paying the rent in order to get the problems resolved.
“Landlord-tenant disputes are all too common in commercial real estate,” a spokesman told The Post. “Many of these actions are directly related to the landlord not abiding to the terms of the lease or not providing the tenant with such items as timely approvals, improvements or repairs. It is the cost of doing business in one of the most expensive real estate markets in the world.”
However, a check of civil court records shows D’Agostino, a rival chain with 13 locations in Manhattan, has no cases filed against it this year and only 14 since the mid-’80s, less than 10 percent of the suits filed versus Catsimatidis’ chain. There were no suits filed against Food Emporium, court records show.
“They always have an excuse,” a second lawyer who has battled Catsimatidis chimed in.
The 64-year-old businessman, who also owns the Red Apple Group, a concern with holdings in real estate and aviation, trails Republican rival Joe Lhota in recent polls.