Ken Griffin endures 25% loss on $11M Park Tower condo

A 66th-floor unit is billionaire’s second in Chicago selloff to trade hands

Ken Griffin and Park Tower at 900 North Michigan Avenue (Getty, J. Crocker, Attribution, via Wikimedia Commons)
Ken Griffin and Park Tower at 900 North Michigan Avenue (Getty, J. Crocker, Attribution, via Wikimedia Commons)

Ken Griffin, Illinois’ former wealthiest resident, shed his second of four luxury condos that are part of his Chicago selloff, and encountered another steep loss in property value.

The billionaire Citadel boss sold the 66th-floor condo at the Park Tower on Michigan Avenue for $11.2 million, Crain’s reported. The sale is part of Griffin’s and Citadel’s exit from the Windy City, which he announced last June, shortly before listing four different units with combined asking prices of $54.5 million.

Last year, Griffin announced that he, his family and his hedge fund Citadel would relocate from Chicago to Miami, saying his firm and others were “ having difficulty recruiting top talent from across the world to Chicago given the rising and senseless violence in the city.”

The five-bedroom, 8,000-square-foot Park Tower unit sold for $11.2 million after Griffin spent $15 million on it in 2012. The sale marked a 25 percent loss for Griffin.

The deal marks the second of Griffin’s four listings to sell. In October, he sold his five-bedroom, 7,400-square-foot full-floor condo on the 37th floor of the Waldorf Astoria for $10.2 million. The deal was another loss for the billionaire of 23 percent, who spent $13.3 million on the unit in 2014.

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Griffin is also still looking for buyers for his two other properties, a 9,250-square-foot full-floor unit on Park Tower’s top floor asking $15.75 million, and a 7,085-square-foot unfinished unit on the 35th floor of the building at 9 West Walton Street.

Down in Miami, Griffin is trying to move into an historic waterfront home that he recently bought from Miami businesswoman and philanthropist Adrienne Arsht for $106 million. The 4-acre estate has two homes, including the historic, 109-year-old Villa Serena, which was once home to William Jennings Bryan, former U.S. secretary of state. Griffin’s plan would involve moving the home, which was built in 1913, to another location where the public could visit.

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— Victoria Pruitt