Ken Griffin Bought All 138 Condos in a Miami Tower to Tear It Down

Ken Griffin didn’t just want a piece of Brickell. He wanted the whole block. Bloomberg reported that the Citadel founder spent roughly three years quietly buying every single unit of Miami’s 22-story Solaris condo tower, only to tear it down for his new Citadel headquarters campus.

The $125 million assemblage

Griffin spent roughly $125 million to buy all 138 condo units and ground-floor retail in a 22-story Miami tower, paying early sellers about $500,000 and holdouts more than $1.5 million for the rights to tear down the building.

He used a web of anonymous LLCs to quietly buy up all 138 units, plus the ground-floor retail space, of the Solaris condominium in Miami. Griffin completed his final purchase in September.

Why overpay by 20%+

Between late 2022 and mid-2025, Solaris units sold for an average of $875 per square foot, 21% more than typical prices in the area, while a nearby similarly aged building, the Club at Brickell Bay, averaged $618 per square foot.

But Griffin wasn’t buying condos. He was buying land. Solaris sat on one of the last properties he didn’t own in Brickell.

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The Citadel campus plan

Griffin is developing a $2.5 billion, 54-story tower to serve as the new global headquarters for his Citadel and Citadel Securities. Plans call for a 300-unit apartment building, a 1,420-space parking garage, a $2.5 billion, 54-story headquarters tower, and possibly a hotel.

Griffin had already purchased a waterfront lot across the street for $363 million in 2022, as well as a 28-story office tower, garage and a small building on the corner that was quickly demolished. Acquiring the Solaris gave him control of nearly the entire site, leaving only a small, city-owned historic property outside his assemblage.

The New York exit angle

The Miami push follows a protracted feud between Griffin and NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani, stemming from a video Mamdani made targeting Griffin’s Park Avenue penthouse in an explainer for his new city tax on expensive second homes.

Griffin said a few years ago that he believes Miami could eclipse New York’s Wall Street as more companies flee New York’s high taxes and crime rates. The Solaris teardown is a physical bet on that thesis.

Options market and stocks to watch

Citadel is private, but the ripple effects show up across public names tied to Miami real estate, financial hubs, and luxury housing dynamics.

• BX: Watch for flow around Blackstone as large asset managers reweight into Sun Belt commercial real estate.
• JPM: Watch for how big banks with growing Miami footprints frame the Wall Street South narrative on the next earnings call.
• GS: Watch for commentary on Florida hiring and office expansion as more financial firms follow Citadel’s lead.
• Z: Watch Zillow for signals on Miami luxury pricing and condo termination premiums getting priced into broader listings data.

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