Ken Griffin is reportedly pushing back hard after New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani used the Citadel CEO’s $238 million Manhattan penthouse as a prop in a ‘tax-the-rich’ campaign video.
In a Thursday email reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, Citadel COO Gerald Beeson warned the firm may not proceed with the $6 billion redevelopment of 350 Park Avenue, a project projected to generate 6,000 construction jobs and support more than 15,000 permanent positions.
Mamdani, a Democratic socialist, was filmed Apr. 15 outside Griffin’s 220 Central Park South penthouse, a 2019 purchase that set a U.S. record, to promote a proposed pied-à-terre tax on luxury second homes worth over $5 million.
A pied-à-terre tax is an annual surcharge on high-value residential properties not used as a primary residence, designed to discourage vacant luxury homes and generate municipal revenue.
Political Risk Meets Economic Clout
According to The Wall Street Journal, Beeson wrote that over the past five years, Citadel principals and team members, including nonresidents, have paid nearly $2.3 billion in city and state taxes. He also noted Griffin has personally directed $650 million in charitable gifts to support New York City. The firm employs roughly 2,500 people in the city.
Griffin relocated Citadel’s headquarters from Chicago to Miami in 2022.
Billionaire investor Bill Ackman publicly backed Griffin, warning that further political friction risked pushing high-paying jobs to Florida.
Capital Flight Risk Grows Louder
Shark Tank investor Kevin O’Leary went further on X, raising personal safety concerns over filming outside Griffin’s private residence and arguing that pied-à-terre owners generate construction and maintenance jobs, pay property taxes and draw nothing from city services — calling the policy “really stupid.”
In an earlier post, O’Leary called Mamdani’s video “the best commercial for Miami Beach real estate I’ve ever seen.”
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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
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