Buyer revealed: Billionaire hedge funder picks up $26M South Beach penthouse

AQR Capital Management co-founder Cliff Asness is reportedly worth $3.8B

321 Ocean and Cliff Asness
321 Ocean and Cliff Asness

A company tied to AQR Capital Management co-founder Cliff Asness is the buyer of a penthouse at 321 Ocean that sold last week for $26 million, property records reveal.

Skurge LLC, a Delaware company that lists a Greenwich, Connecticut address, purchased the five-bedroom, 6,807-square-foot penthouse at 321 Ocean Drive from Russian venture capitalist Boris Jordan in what is the most expensive condo sale of the year.

Records show Asness controls a recently incorporated Florida company with the same address. Voter records show the Greenwich address is the home of Asness and his wife Laurel.

Forbes pegs Asness’ net worth at $3.8 billion. He co-founded AQR with John Liew, David Kabiller and Robert Krail in the late 1990s. As of the end of the year, the investment firm had more than $224 billion in assets under management, according to its website.

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Liew’s wife recently paid $13.5 million for a unit at the nearby Apogee in South Beach. The buildings are less than a mile away from each other. Liew is worth about $1.25 billion, according to Forbes.

The 321 Ocean unit sold for more than $3,800 per square foot, but it was originally listed for double that amount. The sellers, Jordan and his wife Elizabeth, tried to flip the penthouse unit for $53 million in 2015, the same year they purchased it for $20 million. It was relisted last year for $35 million.

Douglas Elliman’s Bill Hernandez and Bryan Sereny listed the unit. Eloy Carmenate and Mick Duchon, also of Elliman, represented the buyer, whom they declined to identify.