ny.curbed.com on 1/23/19 by By Amy Plitt
Citadel founder Ken Griffin has set a U.S. record with the purchase of a $238 million penthouse at 220 Central Park South. The price makes it America’s most expensive home. It’s also close to the top of the list for the priciest home ever sold in the world, though according to the WSJ, a $361 million sale in Hong Kong still bests it.
The sale has not yet hit city records, but a rep for Citadel confirmed the sale to the WSJ. According to the rep, Griffin is seeking “a place to stay when he’s in town” as Citadel expands its New York City presence.
Yes, you read that right—his 24,000-square-foot penthouse is essentially a $238 million pied-à-terre. (Maybe he’ll Airbnb it?)
The building, located on Central Park, is near completion and is said to include numerous luxury amenities including private dining rooms, a juice bar, a golf simulator and a basketball court.
The price for the property is well more than double the previous record for a residential sale in Manhattan, which was $100.5 million for the penthouse at One57. Since that deal was completed in 2014, appetites for Manhattan’s ultra-luxury homes have since waned.
“It’s not a proxy for the market,”said Donna Olshan, president of Olshan Realty Inc. “I just consider it a one-off, an anomaly, an extraordinary sale, much like you see in the art market when somebody goes out and spends an absurd amount of money -- it doesn’t necessarily indicate that that’s where the art market is going.”
Earlier this month, Griffin paid about 95 million pounds ($122 million) for a 200-year-old mansion overlooking London’s St. James’s Park about half a mile from Buckingham Palace. The 20,000 square-foot building includes a gym, pool and underground extension.
Griffin, 50, started trading convertible bonds from his dorm room at Harvard University. He founded Citadel in 1990 and has expanded it into a global empire managing hedge funds and making markets. He’s amassed a $9.6 billion fortune, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a ranking of the world’s 500 wealthiest people.
