Ken Griffin Ramps Up His Miami Real-Estate Play

Billionaire investor Ken Griffin is the Miami mystery buyer gobbling up more than 100 condo units in a building across from his future headquarters in this city’s burgeoning financial district.

The Citadel chief executive assembled a 4.2-acre site in the Brickell neighborhood, where he is building a 54-story glass tower to be the splashy new headquarters for his investment firm.

Griffin controlled almost all of the site except for Solaris, a 22-story condominium tower located in the middle of it. An unknown buyer has been acquiring individual units in the building through a number of all-cash transactions, identified only through a series of limited liability companies.

That buyer is Griffin, Citadel Chief Workplace Officer Paul Darrah confirmed on Thursday. Griffin now owns all of the units in the building, paving the way for the eventual demolition of that building and more development. He plans to build 300 new apartments and a more than 1,400-space parking garage.

When it opens in about six years, Citadel’s new 1.7 million-square-foot headquarters will feature restaurants, a public waterfront terrace and possibly a dock along Biscayne Bay. The firm’s plans initially included a rooftop hotel, but Griffin is now planning to build more office space instead, Darrah said. 

The additional office space fulfills Griffin’s pledge to focus more of his workplace build-out in Florida, rather than New York City where Citadel also has a large presence.

Griffin has engaged in a war of words with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, following the mayor’s championing of the new pied-à-terre tax on expensive second homes in the city. The Citadel chief was especially annoyed after Mamdani released a video in front of a New York penthouse Griffin purchased for about $238 million.

The billionaire said he saw Florida political leaders as more welcoming to business than those in New York. 

The Solaris and surrounding buildings in Miami‘s Brickell neighborhood.Getty Images

“We went to Miami and revised our building plan to make it a bigger office building,” Griffin said after the video aired on social media. “We need to double down on our bet in Miami.”

Citadel has already been staffing up in its temporary Miami office space. Many of the firm’s 500 Miami employees are settled into 130,000 square feet between the 14th and 15th floors of 830 Brickell, one of the city’s tallest office towers.

Other financiers are taking prime Miami office space, bidding up prices to new highs. Investor and entrepreneur Peter Thiel recently set the record for the most expensive office lease in the city’s history, when he leased nearly 18,200 square feet for his family office, at $250 a square foot, at 830 Brickell, according to real-estate brokers.

Griffin’s secretive purchases at the Solaris condo building initially sparked opposition by a number of unit owners who were reluctant to sell. But after Griffin raised his offering prices and persuaded enough owners to sell, he was able to take control of the entire building, some condo owners in Solaris said.

By also purchasing the office building directly behind the condo, Griffin has secured a massive footprint that spans two entire city blocks. 

Darrah said he is focused on creating a workplace environment where employees want to go. Despite the focus on creating world-class office space and enjoying the benefits of in-office collaboration five days a week, the Citadel chief workplace officer said the firm still allows for remote work.

“We have a very flexible work-from-home program: It’s any night after 8:30, Saturdays and Sundays,” he joked at a Bisnow real-estate conference in Miami on Thursday.

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