STAR POWER
HEDGE fund billionaire Ken Griffin (below) — who bought the most expensive home in America last year and owns luxurious properties around the world — is continuing to expand his already massive real estate empire. The Citadel chief just plunked down $60 million for three properties on Star Island in Miami Beach. Griffin paid $37 million for two adjacent lots and
$23 million for a third, sources tell Gimme exclusively. The Real Deal was the first to report on the $37 million purchase. The seller of those two parcels is Stuart Miller, executive chairman of major homebuilder Lennar Corporation. Star Island, a man-made enclave in the Intracoastal Waterway with Miami Beach to the east and the rest of the city to the west, is a hot spot in the Magic City right now: Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez snapped up a snazzy house at 13 Star Island
Drive for $32.5 million, making them Griffin’s neighbor. While J.Lo is famously from The Bronx, A-Rod spent his formative years in Miami. Gloria and Emilio Estefan and Sean “Diddy” Combs are also Star Island residents. Griffin is no stranger to South Florida real estate, with a $60 million penthouse at the Faena House condo tower in Miami Beach and $350 million in Palm Beach land awaiting development. (Though Citadel is based in Chicago, where Griffin owns a $49 million penthouse, it has operated an ad hoc trading room in Palm Beach during the pandemic.) Then there’s his $122 million London townhouse. On the top of the heap, though, is Griffin’s record-setting 2019 purchase: he spent a whopping $238 million on four full floors in the middle of Manhattan skyscraper 220 Central Park South. And after all that, he spent another $4 million on two additional smaller units in the tower.