NEW YORK – Gristedes’ Store 70, located at 71 South End Avenue and West Thames Street, will close on January 28, Tribeca Citizen reported, noting that the closing of the store is “the latest in what seems like a citywide shuttering of supermarkets.”

Gristedes’ parent company, Red Apple Group, confirmed the date of the store’s closing and added the following statement, according to Tribeca Citizen’s report:

“Our owner, John [Catsimatidis], owns the real estate, so any changes will still be up to our discretion. We will be looking to remodel; whether it be a remodel of the grocery store, or a repurpose of the store, John will make sure that it works best in that space and for the community.”

John is, of course, John Catsimatidis, the Greek-American “billionaire owner of Gristedes Foods and Red Apple Group, which holds the real estate and runs an aviation company and an oil refinery in Pennsylvania among other things,” Tribeca Citizen reported.

The report goes on to cite a story in The New York Times in which Catsimatidis pointed out that “not only has rent gone up since he started in the business in the ’70s (from 2 percent of sales to 10 or 12 percent) but street vendors now dip into profits and worse, so does the proliferation of drugstores,” Tribeca Citizen reported, adding that “citywide there are almost 600 CVSs and Duane Reades that all sell milk, bread, even some produce.”

Tribeca is not perhaps a “food desert” as the Tribeca Citizen pointed out, but noted that the area does “fall below the City Planning Standard Ratio.”

Among the neighborhood options available for grocery shopping are Target, Whole Foods, Morgan’s, Amish, Gourmet Garage on Franklin, Trader Joe’s on Spring, Gristedes on Maiden Lane, and Key Food on Fulton. Tribeca Citizen also reported that “the Wall Street Whole Foods on its way.”