Medline Scion Nabbed Ken Griffin’s Chicago Condo at Discount

Another wealthy local buyer just surfaced from Ken Griffin’s retreat from Chicago’s luxury condo market.

Charlie Mills, chairman and former CEO of Northfield-based Medline Industries, was the buyer who paid $7.4 million in April for Griffin’s full-floor unit on the 35th floor of the Gold Coast tower at 9 West Walton Street. The Chicago Tribune reported that Mills and his wife are now planning to sink another $2.75 million into building out the raw space, according to a building permit recently filed with the city.

The deal, first reported by Elite Street, marks a sharp haircut from Griffin’s original bet on the building. The Citadel founder paid $12.5 million in 2017 for the 7,327-square-foot unit, part of a broader buying spree that included the building’s top four floors. Griffin never built out the space, leaving it unfinished even as he shelled out $58.75 million for the combined upper floors.

After announcing in 2022 that he was moving both his hedge fund empire and his personal residence to Florida, Griffin began unwinding his Chicago holdings. The four floors ultimately sold for a combined $34.9 million, a loss of more than 40 percent from his purchase price.

The 35th-floor condo had a particularly bumpy ride. Griffin first listed it in 2022 for $14 million, pulled it from the market the following year, then quietly sold it off-market in April 2025 to a land trust that concealed the buyer’s identity. A December permit, however, names Mills as the current owner and shows he hired architect Michael Waechter and Wujcik Construction to handle the initial buildout, according to the Tribune.

Also on the upper floors of the building, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker paid $19 million in 2024 for the building’s top two floors, also acquired from Griffin, though he has yet to file permits for his own buildout. Another Griffin unit, the 36th floor, sold in April for $8.5 million, but the buyer remains unknown.

Medline went public in December, four years after the Mills family sold a majority stake in the medical supply giant to private equity firms, giving the former CEO plenty of dry powder for a high-end Chicago homecoming.

— Eric Weilbacher