For a trader, it sounds strange, to say the least luxury apartments worth 250,000,000 dollars in his new real estate venture while trying to bring pandas from afar China on New York for the enjoyment of young children without any financial gain.
Besides that John Catsimatidis he is not what we call an ordinary businessman, which he has shown several times in his journey so far.
He showed this again when he expressed his desire to buy the iconic CNN from its parent company last June Warner Bros-Discovery to run it himself for his own fee of $1 a year!
The deal didn’t go through, but the buzz was great about the move he made, and he’s been in the news again in the past few days for a completely different reason.
Reason? Entrepreneur’s desire to bring at least three pandas from faraway China at the New York Zoo.
Cute black and white teddy bears, still an endangered species, are considered major attractions in zoos.
When her government China decides to lend them, he does so for a certain period, which varies from five to twenty years.
It’s something that doesn’t happen often, but that won’t deter the Nisyros immigrant, who believes that if the move is successful, tourism in the Big Apple, which has seen a significant decline since the pandemic, will see a significant boost.
The persistent grocer and the Chinese
THE John Catsimatidis he doesn’t mind when articles about him occasionally include the word “grocer”, perhaps because empire 4,000,000,000 dollars which he has, started in a small grocery store, where he worked as a clerk from a schoolboy and then a student.
By the time he was 25, he had already opened ten successful Red Apple supermarkets on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, followed by investments in real estate, the oil market, media and real estate.
The immobile man is still fully active at 75 and looking for new challenges, as enterprising as the skyscraper he is building in Florida, or not as enterprising as bringing three pandas to America.
In an interview with the New York Post, Katsimadis said he is in talks with Chinese government officials to convince them to “loan” the black and white bears to the New York Zoo for a reasonable period of time.
“Little children won’t see something like this in the city. Their arrival will be a symbol of peace and civilization,” said the billionaire, among other things.
On Friday, Dec. 1, he held a press conference about the entire project and emphasized that the idea of transporting the cute animals from China to America had been floating around for years.
Which is not so easy because the Chinese Govt doesn’t lend pandas to other countries easilyas it remains an endangered species even though its numbers have increased in recent years.
Moving them from Sichuan province, where they live protected in a shelter, is no easy task, but Katsimatidis insists he will do anything to get them to New York.
“I will go and bring them myself,” he told the New York Post, paying all the costs of transporting them from faraway China to America.
His contacts so far are limited to the Chinese ambassador, but those who know him speculate that it won’t be long before he talks to senior Chinese officials to convince them to “borrow” the pandas.
They are even trying to set up a commission for this purpose, saying that the arrival of animals could attract New York over 10,000,000 tourists.
Something the city needs, as traffic in certain areas of Manhattan, such as Lower Manhattan, has seen a 33% drop from pre-pandemic levels.
Pandas that left
John Catsimatidis’ move comes just days after three pandas left the Washington Zoo for China, where they returned permanently with no prospect of new loans.
Tian-Tian (26), Mei Xiang (25) and their little three-year-old Xiao Qiji said goodbye to their American friends after ten years at the Smithsonian Zoo in Washington.
Their presence there was part of what has been called “panda diplomacy” that began in the 1970s after President Nixon’s historic visit to China.
Since that time and half a century, the Chinese have been “loaning” cute bears that feed exclusively on bamboo to the Washington Zoo.
Visitors loved seeing the Pandas, especially the children, and hundreds of people came to greet them on the final day, while CBS reported on “end of season” as he described it.
The three pandas boarded a special FedEx flight to China as officials in the country stressed there was no way they could ever return to America.
People from Katsimatidis’ environment emphasize that the expatriate businessman will not only stay in contact with the Chinese ambassador.
He will try to talk to others, and it must be considered certain that he will also mobilize his political acquaintances to achieve his goal.
In other words, bring at least three pandas to New York to live in her zoo.
It is well known that she is a character who does not easily accept “no” for an answer or “it can’t be done” as she proved that anything is possible if one perseveres and works hard.
He is able to feed the animals himself – as some of his friends say – if it is a condition for the Chinese, who are particularly picky about pandas, to say yes.
Katsimatidis himself is also a scholar, because at 75 he is still thriving, working more than ten hours a day and often, especially this year, flying to the sunny state of Florida.
There he alone supervises his new project, “Residences 400 Central” in St. Petersburg because Florida is St. Petersburg, after all, and Katsimatis decided to build a whole block!
This ex-grocer from Nisyros, who became a billionaire through very hard work, is starting a project that will 400,000,000 dollars upon completion, while the complex includes a 46-story tower or skyscraper.
It will house corporate offices and 301 luxury apartments, which have already begun to sell, as a result of which it was revealed a few days ago that the value of sales reached $250,000,000, an amount that only applies to residences.
Add to that boutiques, restaurants, spas and a rooftop deck with views of Tampa Bay and the Gulf of Mexico for the lucky homeowners to enjoy.
According to the latest information over 200 apartments of this particular project were sold and some remembered the last Friday in May.
When six hundred and fifty concrete mixers poured 907,184 kg of cement onto 2,267,962 kg of reinforced steel at the foundation of this ambitious business venture.
Self-proclaimed “common sense billionaires”, work continues at full speed on the new residential and commercial project of Katsimatidise.
After all, that was also the name of his autobiography published a few months ago, which became a publisher’s bestseller, in which the ex-partner’s rise to the top is described in detail.
It’s called one’s partners “a billionaire with common sense”except perhaps when he spends time talking about pandas and their arrival in the US, which adds to his personal prestige because his business profile is enviable.
The savvy New York-based entrepreneur lives and breathes his new foray into building and buying real estate at 400 Central Ave.
He’s eager to see the office tower and the rest of the luxury building rise to 46 stories, earning the title of tallest building on Florida’s Gulf Coast.
Katsimatidis Development Company, the Red Apple Group, he had already acquired a penthouse under contract for five million dollars and briefly claimed another for himself.
This will be his personal refuge as he tells friends and acquaintances, and if he finally manages to convince the Chinese, he is able to board a plane himself and fly to the other side of the world to bring cute black and white teddy bears to New York.