Billionaire Ken Griffin Sells Chicago Condos at $15 Million Loss

Ken Griffin’s Chicago condos are flying off the shelves.

The billionaire hedge fund manager and Florida transplant took another real estate loss here, selling two unfinished floors at No. 9 Walton in Gold Coast, Crain’s reported.

The two floors sold to an undisclosed buyer for a combined $19 million; the 37th and 38th floors fetched $9 million and $10 million, respectively. The 38th floor has a private rooftop pool and sold for $1,200 per square foot.

The sale comes at a $14.65 million loss for Griffin, who purchased the two floors in 2017 for $33.65 million.

It’s also the priciest residential purchase in Chicago this year, edging out a Lincoln Park mansion that sold in August for $15.25 million. It also brings the number of sales of $4 million and up this year to 75, surpassing last year’s 73 — with over a month to spare.

Nancy Tassone of Jameson Sotheby’s International Realty and Emily Sachs Wong of @properties Christie’s International Real Estate represented Griffin, and Compass’ Katherine Malkin represented the buyer.

Griffin purchased floors 35 and 36 at 9 Walton Street at the same time as the other floors, in a deal totaling over $58 million, and he still holds the two lower floors.

Griffin’s divestment at No. 9 Walton continues a series of luxury residential sales since he moved to Florida a few years ago. Alongside a $3.8 million loss on his 66th floor condo at Park Tower, he has also notched a $1.8 million loss on his 37th-floor condo at the Waldorf Astoria.

Griffin’s cumulative losses exceed $21.5 million. This price depreciation is not isolated to Griffin and his condo holdings. With economic pressures and shifting demand, Chicago’s real estate market, especially in the high-end segment, is seeing a trend of declining valuations.

A downtown Chicago condo recently sold for $900,000, a notable drop from its 1989 sale price of $1.1 million, for example.

Billionaire Michael Krasny reduced the asking price for his 50th floor condo at Park Tower to $6.9 million, down from $9.8 million.

— Andrew Terrell