Ken Griffin ‘doubling down’ on Miami, expanding office space in Brickell tower
Ken Griffin, the hedge fund CEO who has positioned himself as Miami’s hometown billionaire, is “doubling down” on South Florida.
Griffin said on Tuesday in an interview with CNBC that he’s planning to add hundreds of thousands of square feet of office space to the new Citadel headquarters in Brickell.
A spokesperson for Citadel told the Miami Herald last month that construction had begun on the planned 1,049-foot tower at 1201 Brickell Bay Dr., which will be one of Miami’s tallest buildings when completed. The spokesperson did not respond to an email asking about Citadel’s plans to expand its office space in Brickell.
The Florida-born billionaire said the decision came in response to New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s proposed tax on second homes worth more than $5 million, which he promoted by posting a video shot in front of Griffin’s New York penthouse, an approximately $238 million condominium that broke the record for the most expensive home ever sold in the U.S. in 2019.
Griffin, whose estimated net worth is more than $50 billion, would likely incur a tax bill in the millions on the Midtown Manhattan condo overlooking Central Park.
A Citadel executive called the video “shameful” in a company-wide memo, and Griffin called it “creepy and weird” that the mayor recorded a video outside his home. Since the video was posted, Citadel has implied it may pull out of a planned $6 billion project in Manhattan.
During the CNBC interview, which took place after he spoke at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California, Griffin told news anchor Sara Eisen that Citadel “probably will go through with the building” in Manhattan.
Griffin, a major Republican donor who has teased that he may run for office one day, has been a vocal critic of Mamdani’s since the democratic socialist was elected. During his remarks in Beverly Hills, Griffin said Mamdani’s New York “doesn’t welcome success,” adding that the mayor’s video and policies are “triggering the trauma” he “went through in Chicago,” where his firm was based until 2022.
When asked about Griffin’s response to the video at a news conference in late April, Mamdani said he plans to work with business leaders including Griffin to bolster the city’s economy. He added that he believes the tax system is “fundamentally broken,” citing the inequality between New York’s richest and poorest residents.
Griffin’s feud with Mamdani is not the first time Griffin has tried to use his wealth and influence to sway tax policy. When Griffin’s firm was still based in Chicago, he spent more than $50 million lobbying against an Illinois ballot measure that would have replaced the state’s flat income tax with a graduated income tax. The ballot measure didn’t pass, but Griffin pulled Citadel out of Chicago two years later.
During remarks at Tuesday’s conference, Griffin said it’s “unquestionably true” his firm made the right choice relocating its headquarters to Miami.
Griffin has also been vocal in opposing the proposed billionaire wealth tax in California.
During his interview with Eisen, Griffin referenced the Silicon Valley billionaires who purchased homes in South Florida in recent months in response to the proposed tax. Google co-founder Larry Page, who purchased more than $170 million worth of property in Coconut Grove, sends his child to the same Miami school Griffin’s children attend, he said.
The Citadel founder has become one of the leading voices encouraging billionaires and business leaders to set up shop in the Sunshine State. Earlier this year, Griffin and fellow billionaire Stephen M. Ross launched an initiative to entice business leaders to South Florida, citing the state’s low taxes and business-friendly policies.
This story was originally published May 6, 2026 at 3:12 PM.
