Leave it to the ultra-wealthy to secretly drop $125 million on a building just to demolish it.<\/p>\n
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<\/a>. <\/p>\n The mastermind behind the buyouts was a total mystery<\/a> until recently.<\/p>\n \u201cThe yearslong campaign featured repeated rounds of higher offers, personalized pitches to reluctant sellers and below-market leasebacks to people who wanted to stay temporarily,\u201d according to Bloomberg, which interviewed five former owners at the Solaris.<\/p>\n Mystery buyer revealed: Ken Griffin. REUTERS<\/p>\n Mark Clifton, one of the first condo owners to sell, got just over $500,000 from one of Griffin\u2019s anonymous LLCs in December 2022.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously, we should\u2019ve held out,\u201d Clifton told the outlet. \u201cBut the timing was optimum for us. I\u2019m sure a lot of people were upset that they didn\u2019t get top dollar.\u201d<\/p>\n 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. <\/p>\n Solaris will be torn down this summer to make way for Griffin\u2019s Citadel empire. Miami MLS<\/p>\n 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<\/p>\n The 22-story tower in Miami\u2019s Brickell financial district was one of the final roadblocks in Griffin\u2019s quest to build a multi-billion-dollar corporate campus.<\/p>\n The only thing left standing on the block now is a city-owned historic building that once housed Miami\u2019s first physician\u2019s office. It currently serves as headquarters for the Dade Heritage Trust.<\/p>\n Plans<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n 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<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Griffin started buying up each condo between late 2022 and 2025, overpaying by more than 20 percent. Citadel<\/p>\n The aggressive Florida expansion<\/a> comes on the heels of a public feud with New York City\u2019s democratic socialist mayor, Zohran Mamdani. <\/p>\n The bad blood boiled over in April, when Mamdani posted a viral social media video<\/a> advocating for a \u201cpied-\u00e0-terre\u201d tax on luxury second homes worth over $5 million \u2014 filmed right outside Griffin\u2019s record-shattering $238 million penthouse at 220 Central Park South.<\/p>\n