Billionaire Ken Griffin on Friday sold his five-bedroom, 7,400-square-foot Near North Side condominium on the 37th floor of the Waldorf Astoria for $10.22 million.
The Waldorf unit had been Griffin’s longtime home until his June announcement that he would relocate his hedge fund firm, Citadel, and his own family to south Florida, after his complaints about Chicago’s crime. Shortly afterward, Griffin placed many of his high-end Chicago condominiums on the market — including some that he previously had lived in and several that he never has occupied.
The Waldorf residence, at 11 E. Walton Street, is different for two reasons. First, unlike the other condos, the 37th-floor unit is the one that until recently was Griffin’s legal residence. Second, Griffin took a sizable loss on the Waldorf condo. In 2014, he paid $13.3 million through his GCC3 LLC Delaware limited liability company to buy it from former Chicago Mercantile Exchange CEO James McNulty. As a result, Griffin sold the Waldorf for about 23 percent less than he had paid for it eight years earlier.
Griffin had a relatively quick closing on the Waldorf unit. He listed it on July 26 for $11.5 million and went under contract on Sept. 26, meaning the time from contract signing to closing was just two and a half weeks.
The condo has five full bathrooms, two half bathrooms, two offices, two fireplaces, a bonus room, a private gallery entryway with floor-to-ceiling wood paneling, a living room with bespoke custom built-ins and Sapele mahogany floors, and an eat-in kitchen with custom cabinets, a custom built-in pantry and bar, stone countertops, two large wine refrigerators and stainless steel Wolf, Sub-Zero and Miele appliances.
The condo’s primary bedroom suite has a grand terrace with two exposures, three walk-in closets, two bathrooms with Calacatta marble and a private office with a terrace.
The unit had a $130,209 property tax bill in the 2020 tax year, along with another $69,840 a year in homeowners association dues.
Griffin’s listing agent, Nancy Tassone, declined to comment on the sale.
Public records do not yet identify the condo’s buyer. The sale is the latest in a string of $10 million-and-up condo deals in Chicago. It joins Mexican billionaire German Larrea’s $20.56 million purchase of a high-floor duplex in the St. Regis Chicago, private equity executive Bryan Cressey’s $20 million purchase of the 89th-floor penthouse in the Trump International Hotel & Tower and the $17.4 million sale of the full-floor condo on the 34th floor of the building at 9 W. Walton Street.
In terms of houses, $10 million-plus residential deals in 2022 include billionaire Justin Ishbia’s $16 million purchase of a lakefront house in Winnetka that joined his collection of nearly $40 million worth of properties on Lake Michigan, the $12.75 sale of a vintage mansion on the lake in Winnetka, the $11.25 million sale of a newly built mansion in Winnetka and the $10 million transfer of a Lincoln Park mansion that Griffin’s ex-wife, Anne Dias, has inhabited.
Griffin continues to have three other Chicago condos on the market: a four-bedroom, 7,085-square-foot, 35th-floor condo in the building at 9 W. Walton Street for $14 million; a six-bedroom 8,000-square-foot condo on the 66th floor of the Park Tower for $13.25 million; and a six-bedroom, 9,250-square-foot penthouse on the 67th floor of the Park Tower for $15.75 million.
Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.
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