Billionaire Ken Griffin’s Citadel inks huge lease at hot Brickell office tower in Miami
Citadel, the high-flying hedge fund and securities firm that’s moving its headquarters from Chicago to Miami, has signed the biggest lease to date at 830 Brickell, which has become the financial district’s priciest and hottest office tower even though it’s still months from completion.
The tower’s developers, OKO Group and Cain International, confirmed the Citadel lease on Wednesday but declined to disclose terms. Sources familiar with the agreement say it’s for a whopping 90,000 square feet and around five years. Brokers say leases at the 57-story tower have ranged from $120 a square foot to $150 a square foot, setting a new sky-high bar for Miami office space.
The 830 Brickell agreement, along with a smaller, separate office lease at the Southeast Financial Center across the Miami River in downtown, will provide space for hundreds of Citadel employees while developer Sterling Bay builds a custom tower for the company on a vacant waterfront lot on Brickell Bay Drive. A Citadel intermediary paid veteran Miami developer Tibor Hollo’s Florida East Coast Realty a record $363 million for the 2.5-acre parcel at 1201 Brickell Bay Dr. in April.
Citadel, founded by billionaire financier, philanthropist and GOP donor Ken Griffin, also bought an office tower at 1221 Brickell for $286.5 million, but has not announced plans for that building, which had recently undergone a multimillion-dollar renovation.
Citadel’s Miami spree comes as a growing number of tech and finance firms, and the national law firms that serve them, are expanding to Miami, sending once-dormant local office rental rates through the roof. Average office rents across Miami now stand at $50 a square foot, a record for the city — though still far below the premier Manhattan-level rates 830 Brickell is commanding.
Other well-known companies that have signed office deals at the tower include Microsoft, private equity firm Thoma Bravo and Sidley Austin, the Chicago-based law behemoth, which announced a 60,000-square-foot deal at 830 Brickell last month.
The tower, designed by the prominent Chicago firm Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture, is expected to be completed by the end of 2022, with tenants moving in around early 2023. It’s the first new office tower to be built in Miami’s financial district in a decade.
“Citadel’s lease for a new Miami office at 830 Brickell cements our tower and the Brickell Financial District as the destination of choice for finance, technology, and professional services firms relocating and expanding to Miami,” OKO and Cain said in a joint statement. “Citadel’s arrival at 830 Brickell reaffirms our long-held belief and strategic vision that best-in-class office buildings — and the companies and talent they attract — will continue to play an important role in the future of global hubs like Miami.”
This story was originally published August 3, 2022 at 3:53 PM with the headline "Billionaire Ken Griffin’s Citadel inks huge lease at hot Brickell office tower in Miami."