Billionaire Ken Griffin partners with Goldman on $180M Wynwood office buy

Billionaire hedge funder Ken Griffin added to his massive Miami portfolio, partnering with Goldman Properties on a Wynwood office building purchase for more than $180 million.

Griffin, founder of Citadel and its sister firm Citadel Securities, and Miami-based Goldman bought 545Wyn at 545 Northwest 26th Street from Chicago-based Sterling Bay, the South Florida Business Journal reported.

The seller identified Scott Srebnick, CEO of Goldman Properties, as the buyer. Two anonymous sources familiar with the deal said Griffin is a partner on the purchase.

Citadel didn’t return the publication’s request for comment.

Led by Andy Gloor, Sterling Bay completed the 10-story 545Wyn in 2021, property records show. It spans nearly 500,000 square feet. The firm hit distress in the past year with a failed Chicago megaproject called Lincoln Yards and has been selling off portions of that assemblage as well as other properties in Chicago and Dallas.

Sterling Bay paid $18.9 million for the development site in 2019. The seller in that trade was an entity tied to Srebnick.

Griffin, whose net worth Forbes pegs at $51.4 billion, moved his Citadel and market maker firm Citadel Securities from Chicago to Miami in 2022. He’s been steadily amassing properties in the Magic City, paying a record $363 million for a 2.5-acre bayfront lot in Miami’s Brickell, where Griffin plans to build a Citadel and Citadel Securities headquarters supertall. Griffin is partnering with New York-based Related Companies on the tower, which will include a hotel.

Citadel and Citadel Securities are temporarily leasing space at 830 Brickell and the Southeast Financial Center in downtown Miami.

Across the street from the development site, Griffin owns a small apartment building and vacant lot at 1250 and 1260 Brickell Bay Drive, paying $20 million for the properties in 2022.

Goldman was founded in 1968 by the late Tony Goldman, a pioneer in redeveloping Wynwood. Tony Goldman’s niche was spotting and breathing new life into long-overlooked neighborhoods. He first seized on New York’s SoHo and then on Miami Beach’s Art Deco district, before moving onto Wynwood. His daughter, Jessica Goldman Srebnick, temporarily held the role as Goldman CEO, before she passed it on to her husband.

–– Lidia Dinkova

Meet Ken Griffin’s platoon of planners and professionals building his business in South Florida