Ken Griffin has a history of making bets and breaking records.
The billionaire hedge funder began investing in college at Harvard ahead of his 1989 graduation. Those early bets paid off for him and his alma mater. He returned in 2014 with a $150 million donation to the university, which at the time was the largest gift the school ever received.
Griffin also breaks records in real estate, like throwing down nearly $240 million for a penthouse at 220 Central Park South on Manhattan’s Billionaires’ Row.
So it was no surprise that when he announced his Citadel and financial services firm Citadel Securities were relocating their headquarters to Miami from Chicago, he would go all-in.
Since the spring, Griffin and Citadel scooped up two Brickell properties and is rumored to be the buyer of a third. Citadel also leased a new office in Miami and expanded its existing footprint in another.
It’s a homecoming of sorts for the 53-year-old Daytona Beach native who grew up in Boca Raton. Griffin recently moved back to the state he grew up in, but has been acquiring residential property there for roughly a decade. The Real Deal took a closer look at commercial real estate he’s scooping up.
1201 Brickell Bay Drive, Miami
Citadel bought the 2.5-acre bayfront development site in Miami’s Brickell for a record $363 million in April from Tibor Hollo’s Florida East Coast Realty.
It’s not confirmed if this will be the location of Citadel’s new headquarters, but in Griffin’s letter to employees he identified its new base would be along Brickell Bay.
Andy Gloor’s Sterling Bay, based in Chicago, has been tapped to build the headquarters.
1250 and 1260 Brickell Bay Drive, Miami
This month, a Citadel affiliate bought a small apartment building and an adjacent vacant lot across the street from the bayfront development site.
The entity, led by Citadel COO Gerald Beeson, paid $20 million for the three-story apartments, as well as the land at 1250 and 1260 Brickell Bay Drive.
The deal was a flip for the seller, Yamal Yidios’ real estate development and investment firm Ytech, for an 82 percent gain. Ytech’s affiliate paid $11 million for the property before selling it to Citadel. While records show the deals closed a month apart, the deeds were recorded a day apart from one another.
1221 Brickell Avenue, Miami
It’s unclear if Citadel bought the 28-story office tower, which is to the west and near the other two properties the hedge fund purchased.
The Delaware-registered purchasing entity, which paid $286.5 million for the building, is led by Randall Davis – who also was listed as the manager of the entity that also bought the 1201 Brickell Bay Drive lot. Sources pointed to Citadel as being behind the purchase.
The seller, Rockpoint, paid $155 million for the building in 2017, and sold it in June as part of its own Brickell bonanza that included the Boston-based firm’s sale of the Shops at Mary Brickell Village for $216 million in July.
1221 Brickell, which has over 400,000 square feet of office and retail space, was constructed in 1986 and renovated in 2020.
830 Brickell lease, Miami
As Citadel continued its spree, it was a bit of a head scratcher as to why it had not leased at the 830 Brickell office tower under development. But then, it did.
This month, the hedge fund locked in roughly 95,000 square feet in a long-term deal at the 55-story building.
Vlad Doronin’s OKO Group and Jonathan Goldstein’s Cain International are developing. Completion is expected in six months.
The asking rents range from $125 to $150 per square foot, but sources said some recent deals closed at $110 to $120 a square foot.
Citadel also expanded its space at the Southeast Financial Center at 200 South Biscayne Boulevard, in downtown Miami.
A company spokesperson has said the space is needed because the “shift to permanent building will take several years.”
Ex-Neiman Marcus site, Palm Beach
Citadel isn’t forgetting about its employees who live north of Miami and in Palm Beach.
The company will set up an office in the former Neiman Marcus department store site at 151 Worth Avenue that spans 48,000 square feet.
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