Hedge fund billionaire and real estate aficionado Ken Griffin is selling two Miami Beach penthouses in the super exclusive Faena House development. He bought the townhouses five years ago and recently sold them at a loss of at least 20%. He sold the larger penthouse for $35 million and the smaller unit is under contract for an undisclosed amount, but was on the market for $12.5 million. Griffin bought the two units for $60 million in 2015. If the smaller unit gets its asking price, the total would be $47.5 million, 20% less than he paid.
Griffin was born in Daytona Beach, Florida in 1968 and attended Harvard, where he amassed a million-dollar fortune during college by trading stocks and bonds. He launched Chicago-based hedge fund Citadel LLC soon after graduating from college in 1990. Today, he has a net worth of $16 billion.
The Miami penthouses in Faena House come with a number of perks, including a valet, private concierge service, spa and fitness center, two pools, and a private beach club with cabana service. The building is home to a number of wealthy people from the financial sector including former Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein, hedge fund managers Jamie Dinan and Alan Howard, and managing director of Chieftan Capital Management, Thomas Stern.
When Griffin bought the Faena House penthouses, it was the most expensive home sale in South Florida. He was finalizing his divorce at the time. The larger condo occupies the entire top floor of the building. The glass-walled condos have 12,516 square feet of space. The larger penthouse has a 70-foot infinity pool on is 9,900-square-foot terrace.
Griffin has been on a real estate buying spree over the last eight years. He's bought $350 million worth of houses on Palm Beach's Billionaires Row alone. Reportedly, he plans to build an enormous beachfront mansion on the combined properties. In 2014, he paid $29.3 million for two condos on the 46th and 37th floors of Chicago's Waldorf Astoria tower. He bought four floors of the No. 9 Walton building in Chicago for $58.75 million in late 2018. In early 2019, he bought a $122 million mansion in London and a penthouse at 220 Central Park South in Manhattan for $238 million. Later that same year, he bought two more condos at 220 Central Park South for $4 million. In February 2020, he paid $100 million for Calvin Klein's former Hamptons home. In August, he paid $37 million for two empty lots on Star Island in Florida.
Basically, Griffin has spent more than $700 million on real estate in Chicago, Florida, New York, and London since 2012. Griffin also owns homes in Aspen and Hawaii. Some men hit middle age and date young women and drive flashy sports cars. Ken Griffin is just spending hundreds of millions on condos and houses – which, let's face it – is a smarter investment.
