Most Expensive US Home

Most expensive US home, a $238M NYC penthouse, reportedly sold to billionaire Ken Griffin

Mike Snider, USA TODAY 

Billionaire Ken Griffin has added to his pricey real estate roster.

Griffin, the founder of the hedge fund Citadel, has reportedly acquired the most expensive U.S. home ever, a penthouse in New York that sold for about $238 million, according to The Wall Street Journal.


The apartment, which is within the 220 Central Park high-rise and measures about 24,000 square feet, was purchased by Griffin in 2015, the Journal says. The building, located between Seventh Avenue and Broadway, is nearing completion and has led to the real estate deal's closing, the Journal says.

A crane sits atop a new condominium skyscraper at 220 Central Park South in New York in 2016. Ken Griffin, the billionaire founder of the Citadel hedge fund, has purchased a penthouse in the building for about $238 million, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday — the highest-priced home ever sold in the U.S. (Photo: Bebeto Matthews, AP)

Citadel is expanding to new offices at 425 Park Avenue and the residence gives Griffin a place to stay there, a spokesman with the fund told the Journal.

“He’s definitely a global trophy hunter and he bought what would arguably be now the number one building in New York,” Donna Olshan, president of Olshan Realty Inc., in New York, told Bloomberg.

This news comes just two days after CNBC reported Griffin had spent $122 million to acquire the most expensive home sold in London since 2008. The mansion near Buckingham Palace had once been the home of Charles de Gaulle, a company spokesperson told CNBC.

The New York and London residences bring to six the number of real estate price records Griffin has set. A year ago, Griffin paid $58.5 million for the top four floors of a Chicago condo tower, according to CNBC. He has also made major purchases in Miami and Palm Beach, Florida.


Ken Griffin, Citadel founder and CEO.
(Photo: Paul Elledge)

Griffin, who is 50, has a fortune of $9.6 billion and holds the No. 138 spot on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index of the world’s 500 wealthiest people. While attending Harvard, Griffin started his trading career at the age of 19 from his dorm room.

The hedge fund founder has dished out cash on charities, too. Last year, he donated $10 million toward the Chicago Police Department and University of Chicago Crime Lab's project to combat violent crime. Overall, he has given more than $700 million to numerous charities including the Ann & Robert Lurie Children’s Hospital, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Modern Art and the American Museum of Natural History, according to Citadel's website.