Ken Griffin’s Citadel plans 51-story office tower on Park Avenue

Hedge fund working with Vornado, Rudin on Norman Foster-designed skyscraper

A photo illustration of Citadel's Ken Griffin and a rendering of the planned tower at 350 Park Avenue (Getty, Citadel LLC, DBOX for Foster + Partner)
A photo illustration of Citadel's Ken Griffin and a rendering of the planned tower at 350 Park Avenue (Getty, Citadel LLC, DBOX for Foster + Partner)

New details are emerging on hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin’s planned office skyscraper in Midtown.

Griffin’s Citadel is eyeing a 51-story, Norman Foster-designed tower at 350 Park Avenue, where it will redevelop properties leased from Steve Roth’s Vornado Realty Trust and Rudin Management, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg. Citadel would occupy about 54 percent of the 1.7 million-square-foot building, which would rise to 1,350 feet.

Plans for the tower, which would replace Vornado’s 350 Park Avenue, where Citadel keeps some of its existing New York offices, as well as Rudin’s 40 East 52nd Street, were confirmed by Vornado last month.

Initial proposals say the building is expected to be completed in 2032.

The plans would place the tower around the same height as JP Morgan’s forthcoming headquarters three blocks away at 275 Park Avenue.

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It’s the second massive office development in the works for Citadel, which last year announced plans to relocate its headquarters from Chicago to Miami.

In August, Citadel leased 95,000 square feet at 830 Brickell, a 55-story office tower in Miami developed by Vlad Doronin’s OKO Group and Cain International, where asking rents have hit $125 to $150 per square foot.

But the lease is only meant to provide interim space for Citadel. The hedge fund is in the early stages of building its own $1 billion skyscraper in Miami with Chicago-based developer Sterling Bay.

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— Ellen Cranley