Ken Griffin and Long Island City (Credit: iStock)
Ken Griffin, the billionaire CEO of Citadel, considered uprooting the Chicago-based hedge fund and moving to New York — until the backlash against Amazon’s plans for a new campus in Long Island City.
The political backlash against Amazon in New York “has dramatically reduced our interest in moving our headquarters here,” Griffin told Bloomberg. He called the e-commerce empire’s decision to pull out of the city “heartbreaking.”
Griffin began to mull a new home for his $29 billion company in January, after he spent a record $238 million to buy a penthouse at 220 Central Park South in Manhattan. Griffin visits the city about once a week, he said.
He already had grabbed the record for the priciest home in Chicago in 2017, when he paid $59 million for a four-story penthouse at the top of JDL Development’s No. 9 Walton.
Citadel’s offices anchor the 1.5 million-square-foot Citadel Center at 131 South Dearborn Street in Chicago’s Loop.
In New York, Citadel signed a lease in 2016 to take 211,400 square feet in the 47-story tower being built by L&L Holding Company at 425 Park Avenue. In January, the company announced it would expand the lease by another 124,000 square feet. [Bloomberg] — Alex Nitkin
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