Sidney Torres buys Circle Food Store at auction

NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - Media mogul Sidney Torres is the new owner of the historic Circle Food Store in New Orleans.

Torres payed $1.7 million at an Orleans Parish Sheriff’s auction on Thursday for the building located at St. Bernard Ave. and N. Claiborne Ave.

The store closed in 2018, after amassing millions of dollars in debt. It is also at the center of a number of lawsuits, mainly seeking financial restitution.

The building opened in the 1930s. It thrived for decades until it was flooded by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The store reopened in 2014 after getting an $8 million boost in tax credits and loans.

The building flooded again in 2017.

Torres, who is the former owner of SDT, a trash company credited with cleaning up the French Quarter, which he later sold. And he’s the current star of “The Deed,” a story about flipping houses to build wealth.

Torres said he has some ideas about what he will do with the property. He said he might redevelop the building into a different kind of community market.