Leave it to the ultra-wealthy to secretly drop $125 million on a building just to demolish it.
Hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin spent three years using a web of anonymous LLCs to quietly buy up all 138 units, plus the ground-floor retail space, of the Solaris condominium in Miami, Bloomberg reported.
The mastermind behind the buyouts was a total mystery until recently.
“The yearslong campaign featured repeated rounds of higher offers, personalized pitches to reluctant sellers and below-market leasebacks to people who wanted to stay temporarily,” according to Bloomberg, which interviewed five former owners at the Solaris.
Mystery buyer revealed: Ken Griffin. REUTERS
Mark Clifton, one of the first condo owners to sell, got just over $500,000 from one of Griffin’s anonymous LLCs in December 2022.
“Obviously, we should’ve held out,” Clifton told the outlet. “But the timing was optimum for us. I’m sure a lot of people were upset that they didn’t get top dollar.”
Griffin paid an average of $875 per square foot between late 2002 and mid-2025, overpaying by more than 20%, Bloomberg found citing Redfin data for the area.
Solaris will be torn down this summer to make way for Griffin’s Citadel empire. Miami MLS
Griffin is developing a $2.5 billion, 54-story tower to serve as the new global headquarters for his Citadel and Citadel Securities. Getty Images
The 22-story tower in Miami’s Brickell financial district was one of the final roadblocks in Griffin’s quest to build a multi-billion-dollar corporate campus.
The only thing left standing on the block now is a city-owned historic building that once housed Miami’s first physician’s office. It currently serves as headquarters for the Dade Heritage Trust.
Plans call for a 300-unit apartment building, a 1,420-space parking garage, a $2.5 billion, 54-story headquarters tower for his Citadel hedge fund and securities firm, and possibly a hotel.
Since uprooting Citadel and Citadel Securities from Chicago in 2022, Griffin has poured more than $1 billion into assembling a five-acre mega-parcel spanning two city blocks in Brickell.
Griffin started buying up each condo between late 2022 and 2025, overpaying by more than 20 percent. Citadel
The aggressive Florida expansion comes on the heels of a public feud with New York City’s democratic socialist mayor, Zohran Mamdani.
The bad blood boiled over in April, when Mamdani posted a viral social media video advocating for a “pied-à-terre” tax on luxury second homes worth over $5 million — filmed right outside Griffin’s record-shattering $238 million penthouse at 220 Central Park South.
Griffin said a few years ago that he believes Miami could eclipse New York’s Wall Street as more companies flee New York’s high taxes and crime rates.
“We are proud to invest in Miami’s continued growth and to play a positive role in Brickell’s long-term future as it continues to attract residents, businesses, and capital from around the world,” a spokesperson for Griffin told The Post.