Ken Griffin’s splurge on luxury real estate shows no signs of abating.
The hedge fund titan spent $99.1 million for a beachfront house adjacent to his existing Palm Beach, Florida, estate, according to the Palm Beach Post, citing sources with knowledge of the transaction and a deed filing. A Palm Beach County document confirmed the purchase price, but didn’t identify the buyer.
A spokesman for Griffin didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Citadel founder set a U.S. record this year with the purchase of a $238 million penthouse at 220 Central Park South. That came days after Griffin paid about 95 million pounds ($122 million) for a 200-year-old mansion overlooking London’s St. James’s Park about a half mile from Buckingham Palace. The 20,000-square-foot building includes a gym, pool and underground extension.
“His real estate purchases are clearly the gems of the markets he’s bought into,” said Jay Phillip Parker, chief executive officer of the Florida division of Douglas Elliman Real Estate.
The Palm Beach home, at 60 Blossom Way, is just north of a 17-acre oceanfront estate Griffin currently owns, the Post reported Monday. His new eight-bedroom house, on almost 3.6 acres, was built in 2000 and last sold in 2017 for $77.1 million, according to the website of Palm Beach County Appraiser Dorothy Jacks.
Palm Beach has morphed from a storied second-home location to a place that high-net-worth individuals now make their primary residence, Parker said. And that, in turn, has bolstered the cachet of the area, bringing with it luxury services and retailers that some of those new denizens desire. Big-ticket condo towers, such as the Bristol, are now springing up in the county, and $20 million purchases are common enough that they’re almost routine, said Parker, who wasn’t involved in Griffin’s purchase.
Griffin has now spent at least $350 million to build his Florida holdings, the Palm Beach Post reported. The cost of his major property purchases total more than $700 million, according to calculations by Bloomberg.
Griffin, 50, started trading convertible bonds from his dorm room at Harvard University. The Florida native founded Citadel in 1990 and has expanded it into a global empire managing hedge funds and making markets. He’s amassed a $9.9 billion fortune, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a ranking of the world’s 500 wealthiest people. His net worth has increased by $1.1 billion this year on the index.
This article provided by Bloomberg News.
