Nikita Stewart and David Gelles

<h1>NEW YORK — In Manhattan, where multimillion-dollar real estate sales are downright routine, a hedge fund tycoon has managed to set a new standard for conspicuous consumption by paying a fortune for an unfinished piece of property in the sky.</h1>

The billionaire, Kenneth C. Griffin, spent $238 million for a penthouse at 220 Central Park South that is still under construction, making it the most expensive residential sale in U.S. history.

What’s more, in a New York tale that is not entirely uncommon, the 79-story building where Griffin’s penthouse will soon exist was built after the landlord evicted dozens of middle-class tenants from their rent-stabilized apartments in what was a fairly modest, white-brick building with 20 floors.

With a net worth estimated at $10 billion, Griffin, founder and chief executive of global investment firm Citadel, is among the richest people in the world. And in recent years, Griffin has become increasingly willing to flaunt his wealth, spending lavishly on modern art, philanthropy and trophy real estate, even as income inequality is roiling the national political debate.

Twice divorced, Griffin has three children and is primarily based in Chicago, where Citadel is headquartered. Through a spokesman, Griffin declined to comment for this story.

He is a globe-trotting homebuyer, leaving a trail of his pricey purchases, from a $60 million penthouse in Miami to a $122 million mansion in London.

All told, according to a person familiar with Griffin’s spending, he has spent approximately $700 million on real estate and nearly as much on art.

He began collecting art more than a decade ago, acquiring works by Cézanne and Monet. In 2006, he spent $80 million on a Jasper Johns painting that he acquired from David Geffen. And in 2016, Griffin paid $500 million to acquire two paintings — a Jackson Pollock and a Willem de Kooning — this time from Geffen’s foundation, in what was one of the largest-ever private art deals.

Griffin has declined to join other billionaires in a pact to donate the majority of their wealth to charity. Created by Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett in 2010, the Giving Pledge has more than 150 signees.

But Griffin has given away about $700 million, according to the person familiar with his finances.

He is on the board of the Whitney Museum of American Art, which named the lobby of its new building after him. He donated $40 million to the Museum of Modern Art. Griffin and his ex-wife donated $19 million to the Art Institute of Chicago. And at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, Griffin donated $16.5 million to fund the purchase of the largest dinosaur ever discovered.

Griffin has also donated huge sums to educational institutions.

In 2014 he gave $150 million to Harvard University, the largest gift in the school’s history. In 2017 Griffin’s charity said it would donate $125 million to the University of Chicago, which would rename its influential department of economics after him. More recently, Griffin has turned his acquisitive eye toward real estate.

Fellow financiers said Griffin should be applauded for his philanthropy, rather than vilified for his spending. John W. Rogers Jr., chief executive of Ariel Investments, who serves on the board of the University of Chicago with Griffin (as well as on the board of The New York Times Co.), declined to comment on his real estate spending. “The key thing is that he’s decided to be generous now,” Rogers said. “Ken is a role model for the next generation of hedge fund managers.”

Griffin has cited his maternal grandparents as inspiration for his philanthropy. They ran a fuel oil business in Illinois, and when some customers could not pay their bills during the winter, his grandparents would extend them credit.

The Harvard graduate made his fortune through finance. As a sophomore in 1987, Griffin began trading out of his dorm room using a fax machine, an early personal computer and the phone. Just three years later, he founded Citadel in Chicago.

The firm grew rapidly, and today Citadel, which is privately held, manages some $28 billion, trading stocks, fixed income, commodities and more.

And Griffin has proved adept at making a profit even during market turbulence. Last year, Citadel’s flagship fund was up 9.1 percent, despite a difficult end of the year for most markets. In the hedge fund industry, where star managers are rewarded with outsize returns, such performance is extremely lucrative. In 2017 alone, Griffin earned some $1.4 billion, more than any other hedge fund manager, according to Institutional Investor’s Alpha magazine.

Wall Street’s compensations have made New York look like a Monopoly board come to life; there are so many ultraluxury residential buildings along the southern edge of Central Park that it has been nicknamed “Billionaire’s Row.” That Griffin is spending so freely at a moment when populist movements are gaining momentum around the globe struck some critics as especially tone deaf.

“The plutocrats continue brazenly flaunting the excesses that have enraged much of humanity,” said Anand Giridharadas, author of “Winners Take All,” and a critic of wealthy philanthropists. “They’re displaying very little awareness of the moment that we are in.”

On Thursday, economic advisers to Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who is running for president, said that she would propose introducing a new “wealth tax” on the richest Americans.

Mayor Bill de Blasio has long pushed for a tax on millionaires earning more than a certain amount of money, but legislators in Albany have not supported that plan. On Thursday, he called for an expansion of the mansion tax. Currently, buyers of homes that sell for $1 million or more are required to pay a 1 percent tax. The tax, the mayor said, needs to be adjusted to “explicitly” target “high-value purchases” to generate extra revenue that could be used to create affordable housing.

De Blasio, who has promoted himself as a national voice against income inequality, has struggled to address the issue, which is acute in a city with a housing crisis, poverty and extreme wealth. About 79,000 people, most trapped by out-of-reach rents and low wages, are homeless, a record number, and the most of any city in the United States, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The city’s dysfunctional housing authority struggles to maintain a complex of buildings that is so aging that repairs often take months or years to be completed. Even so, there are hundreds of thousands of people on the waiting list to get an authority apartment.

But Thursday the mayor mostly criticized President Donald Trump’s tax cuts, which heavily favored corporations and the wealthy.

“You look at these massive purchases. Does anyone think that these rich individuals can’t afford more in taxes? They have been getting tax break, after tax break, after tax break. Before the Trump tax bill they were already experiencing unprecedented wealth and had a whole system of tax policy that was favoring them in every conceivable way,” de Blasio said. “The Trump tax cuts put that on steroids.”

Griffin questioned the Trump tax cuts in 2017, suggesting that they were more aggressive than what was needed to stimulate the economy. Griffin — who in 2012 said that the wealthy have “insufficient influence” in politics — has given to both Democrats and Republicans over the years, though his fiscal policies appear more closely aligned with those usually promoted by conservative lawmakers. He has called for fewer regulations and lower taxes, arguing that such moves would help the economy.

He was well-known in wealthy, philanthropic and financial communities. But Griffin is now known more widely as the man who bought the penthouse for the outrageous price.

There was nothing ostentatious about the old building, the one that was mostly demolished by 2013, save for the sought-after address and the spectacular leafy views of Central Park. It first opened in 1954.

A state law gives landlords the right to remove tenants from rent-stabilized apartments if they plan to demolish a building and erect a new one, showing proof of financing to do so. Residents received their first eviction notices in 2006. A group of tenants, calling themselves the “Save Our Homes” Association, held on for as long as possible, suing to stay, but eventually settled for an undisclosed amount.

Connie Collins, a former TV journalist who worked at WNBC, was one of the holdouts. She recalled being able to see the July 4 fireworks displays from her 12th-floor terrace. “I just hope one of his terraces doesn’t get burnt from a spark because it’s so far up,” said Collins, 71. She said her monthly rent for a two-bedroom apartment was a little over $2,000 when she moved in 2008. “It was a great time and an affordable time,” she said.

Cathy Marshall was also one of the tenants in the old building who stayed as long as possible; she lived there for 36 years. She was in a rear apartment on the eighth floor, so she missed out of the scenic views, but she enjoyed being on the route of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and the New York City Marathon. “People on your floor, if you were sick, they went down and got you soup,” she said.

“I was very happy there. But change happens.”

This article originally appeared in <a id="3268e1d2-6a2c-4978-ab7b-2f75e041d866" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/24/nyregion/238-million-penthouse-sale.html">The New York Times</a>.

Even in Jaded New York, a $238 Million Penthouse Turns Heads

The billionaire, Kenneth C. Griffin, spent $238 million for a penthouse at 220 Central Park South that is still under construction, making it the most expensive residential sale in U.S. history.

Even in jaded New York, a $238 million penthouse turns heads

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Nikita Stewart and David Gelles

Articles written by the author

Even in jaded New York, a $238 million penthouse turns heads