Dave Portnoy unloads on NYC’s Mamdani for targeting Ken Griffin’s $238M penthouse — now a $6B plan could be pulled - New York News Beep

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Dave Portnoy may not be a fan of billionaire hedge fund manager Ken Griffin — but he’s firmly on his side in Griffin’s escalating feud with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

The Barstool Sports founder unloaded on Mamdani in a post on X, after the mayor used Griffin’s record-setting $238 million Manhattan penthouse as the backdrop for a “tax the rich” video promoting a proposed pied-à-terre tax on luxury second homes.

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“I’m not the biggest Ken Griffin fan from the GameStop saga days,” Portnoy wrote (1). “But I’d love for him to give Zohran a big f–k you and pull his construction plans and pull the hundreds of millions he pays in taxes and charity.”

Portnoy accused New York City officials of demonizing wealthy residents while still relying on their money to fund the city.

“NYC officials are hilarious,” he wrote. “All they do is say they hate rich people and then beg them to stay and pay for all their useless sh-t.”

The blast came after Mamdani filmed a Tax Day video outside 220 Central Park South, where Griffin owns a four-floor penthouse that he bought for roughly $238 million in 2019. In the video, Mamdani promoted a proposed pied-à-terre tax targeting New York City homes worth more than $5 million whose owners do not live in the city full time (2).

“This pied-à-terre tax is specifically designed for the richest of the rich. Those who store their wealth in New York City real estate, but who don’t actually live here,” Mamdani said in the video.

Portnoy argued Mamdani could have pushed the tax without singling out Griffin personally.

“There was zero reason for Zohran to antagonize Griffin,” Portnoy wrote, accusing the mayor of trying to look like a “Mr. Cool Guy Communist” by “rubbing people’s faces in it.”

“Why would any rich person stay there?” Portnoy added. “NYC wanted a communist mayor. They got a communist mayor.”

Griffin has also pushed back publicly, calling Mamdani’s use of his name and home in the video “a personal attack” that demonstrated a “profound lack of judgment” (3). The Citadel founder also said he planned to meet with New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to discuss the state’s future direction.

Meanwhile, Citadel’s leadership suggested the controversy could put a major New York investment at risk.

In an internal email reported by The Wall Street Journal, Citadel COO Gerald Beeson called Mamdani’s targeting of Griffin “shameful” and pointed to the firm’s planned redevelopment of 350 Park Avenue (4). Beeson said the project, if it moves forward, would involve more than $6 billion in spending, create 6,000 construction jobs and support more than 15,000 permanent jobs in Midtown Manhattan.

That was the move Portnoy appeared to be urging Griffin to make: hit back not with words, but by pulling investment, tax dollars and jobs from the city.

‘An obligation to pay as little tax as possible’

Most Americans don’t have the billions in leverage Portnoy is urging Griffin to use. They can’t move a multibillion-dollar office project, reshape a city’s tax base or redirect hundreds of millions in tax payments. But the broader lesson still applies: wealthy individuals tend to think carefully about where their money lives, how it’s invested and how much of it is exposed to taxes.

For decades, high-net-worth individuals have used proven strategies — and specific types of assets — to legally slash what they owe to the IRS. According to a report from ProPublica, some billionaires in the U.S. paid little or no income tax relative to the vast fortunes they’ve amassed (5).

That’s largely because billionaires build their wealth through assets — not wages. As the value of these assets rises, their net worth grows — and as Mamdani’s pied-a-tierre tax points out, the U.S. tax system isn’t designed to fully capture those gains. Capital gains are typically taxed at lower rates than regular income, and taxes aren’t owed until the assets are sold.

In fact, as NYU Stern professor Scott Galloway once put it, if you’re trying to build wealth, you have “an obligation to pay as little tax as possible.”

This is why billionaires like Griffin invest in real estate — because of the generous tax treatment it receives.

When you earn rental income from an investment property, you can claim deductions for a wide range of expenses, such as mortgage interest, property taxes, insurance and ongoing maintenance and repairs.

Real estate investors also benefit from depreciation — a tax deduction that recognizes the gradual wear and tear of a property over time. Investors can also use tools like refinancing and 1031 exchanges to keep their capital compounding instead of cashing out.

Today, you don’t need to be a millionaire — or even to buy a single property outright — to invest in real estate. Platforms like mogul offer an easier way to get exposure to this income-generating asset class.

This real estate investment platform offers fractional ownership in blue-chip rental properties, which gives investors monthly rental income, real-time appreciation and tax benefits — without the need for a hefty down payment or 3 A.M. tenant calls.

Founded by former Goldman Sachs real estate investors, the team hand-picks the top 1% of single-family rental homes nationwide for you. In other words, you gain access to institutional-quality offerings for a fraction of the usual cost.

Each property undergoes a rigorous vetting process, requiring a minimum 12% return even in downside scenarios. Across the board, the platform features an average annual IRR of 18.8%. Offerings often sell out in under three hours, with investments typically ranging between $15,000 and $40,000 per property.

And if you’re an accredited investor interested in multifamily and industrial real estate, you could consider Lightstone DIRECT.

Lightstone DIRECT’s direct-to-investor model ensures a high degree of alignment between individual investors and a vertically-integrated, institutional owner-operator — a sophisticated and streamlined option for individual investors looking to diversify into private-market real estate.

With Lightstone DIRECT, accredited individuals can access the same multifamily and industrial assets Lightstone pursues with its own capital, with minimum investments starting at $100,000.

Keep more of what you earn

The wealthy don’t just focus on what they invest in — they also pay close attention to where those investments sit. Using tax-advantaged retirement accounts can be a powerful way to keep more capital compounding over time.

For instance, traditional IRAs and Roth IRAs allow investments to grow either tax-deferred or tax-free, depending on the account type.

While many retirement accounts primarily hold stocks and mutual funds, some investors choose to diversify further.

Ray Dalio, founder of the world’s largest hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates, has repeatedly warned that many portfolios lack one key safe-haven asset: gold.

“People don’t have, typically, an adequate amount of gold in their portfolio,” he told CNBC last year. “When bad times come, gold is a very effective diversifier.”

Long seen as the ultimate safe haven, gold isn’t tied to any single country, currency or economy. It can’t be created at will by central banks like fiat money, and in times of economic turmoil, market turbulence or geopolitical uncertainty, investors tend to pile in — driving up its value.

Despite a recent pullback, gold prices are still up nearly 40% over the last 12 months.

One way to invest in gold that also provides significant tax advantages is to open a gold IRA with the help of Priority Gold.

Gold IRAs allow investors to hold physical gold or gold-related assets within a retirement account, thereby combining the tax advantages of an IRA with the protective benefits of investing in gold, making it an option for those looking to help shield their retirement funds against economic uncertainties.

When you make a qualifying purchase with Priority Gold, you can receive up to $10,000 in precious metals for free.

Dave Portnoy unloads on NYC’s Mamdani for targeting Ken Griffin’s $238M penthouse — now a $6B plan could be pulled

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