An individual buyer — a Delaware limited liability company whose owner could not yet be determined — paid billionaire Ken Griffin $19 million Tuesday for the top two floors of the 38-story luxury Near North Side building at 9 W. Walton Street. That combined purchase represents the highest price anyone has paid this year for a Chicago-area residence, and it meant that Griffin lost more than $15.1 million on the two condominiums and that he now has lost almost $22 million on Chicago condos he has sold.
Public records reviewed by the Tribune show that Chicago Skyline Properties LLC, a Delaware limited liability company that was formed last year, was the buyer of the 15,000-square-foot unbuilt space at 9 W. Walton, which includes a private rooftop pool and pavilion. Because Delaware law allows the owners of companies to shield their identities, Elite Street could not yet determine the individual or individuals behind Chicago Skyline Properties LLC. A paralegal at the Sidley Austin law firm who helped prepare public documents related to the sale did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and Katherine Malkin, the agent who represented Chicago Skyline Properties LLC in its purchase, also did not respond to a request for comment.
No matter what, Griffin, who has moved his residence and his Citadel hedge fund to south Florida, once again took a major loss on a high-priced downtown Chicago condo. He bought the two full-floor units in late 2017 — each containing 7,500 square feet of raw space — for $21,166,000 and $12,949,500, respectively, or for a total of $34,115,500. The Tuesday sales of the 38th-floor top level — complete with its private rooftop pool, deck and pavilion — and the 37th floor for $10 million and $9 million, respectively, mean that combined, Griffin lost more than $15.1 million on the top two floors of the building at 9 W. Walton.
In total, Griffin paid $58.75 million in late 2017 for four floors, which he never built out and finished.
On Wednesday, Griffin placed the 7,500-square-foot full-floor unit on the building’s 36th floor on the market for $8.5 million. He previously had had that unit for sale from June 2023 until March for $12 million. Griffin also previously had listed the full-floor unit on the 35th floor for $14 million for more than nine months, from 2022 until 2023, although that 35th-floor unit is not currently publicly for sale.
The units on the 37th and 38th floors that Griffin just sold do not have a private internal staircase. The units have 16-foot windows, two additional terraces on the 38th floor, a private 39th-floor interior space and rooftop pool that are accessed by an in-unit private elevator
The top two floors had a combined property tax bill of $819,230 in the 2023 tax year.
The Chicago area’s previous high-water mark for a residential purchase had been a buyer who paid $15.25 million in August for a 25,000-square-foot mansion in Lincoln Park.
Griffin previously has lost money on two other Chicago condos. He sold the condo which he had identified as his own personal residence, a full-floor unit on the 37th floor of the Waldorf Astoria Residences building, to a still-unidentified buyer for $10.225 million in 2022. That represented a nearly $3.1 million loss from the $13.3 million that he had paid for that unit in 2014. And, Griffin sold the full-floor unit on the 66th floor of the Park Tower to billionaire film director George Lucas and his wife, Mellody Hobson, in 2023 for $11.2 million. That sale netted Griffin an $3.8 million loss from the $15 million that he had paid for that condo in 2012.
In all, Griffin now has lost a hair below $22 million so far on his Chicago condo sales.
Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.
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