Griffin says he's doubling down on Miami amid Mamdani feud
Ken Griffin said he plans to make Citadel's Miami tower even bigger after New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani name-checked the billionaire in his pledge to charge more taxes on second homes.
"We went to Miami and revised our building plan to make it a bigger office building," Griffin said in an interview Tuesday at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills. "What the mayor of New York has made clear to my partners, and principally my New York partners, is that we need to double down on our bet in Miami."
In a viral video last month, Mamdani called out Griffin's $238 million Central Park South penthouse - the most expensive-ever U.S. home sale - in a video discussing a new tax proposal on pieds-à-terre. The financier said he's seen the video three times and called it "creepy and weird."
Griffin, who founded the Citadel hedge fund and market-making firm Citadel Securities, famously moved himself and his business to Miami from Chicago after criticizing that city's leadership and response to crime.
"Looking at what Mamdani did to me and more broadly is doing to the city of New York is triggering the trauma I went through in Chicago," Griffin said.
In an emailed statement, Mamdani Press Secretary Joe Calvello said the mayor wants all New Yorkers to succeed, including business owners and entrepreneurs such as Griffin, who's a major employer in the city.
"That does not negate the fact, however, that our tax system is fundamentally broken," Calvello added. "If we want this city to become a place that working people can afford, we need meaningful tax reform that includes the wealthiest New Yorkers contributing their fair share."
Citadel has almost 2,500 employees in New York, according to the firm. Griffin also has a new tower in Manhattan under construction at 350 Park Ave. that's costing an estimated $6 billion.
The firm has been working with both Vornado Realty Trust and Rudin Management Co. on that development. Earlier Tuesday, Vornado Chief Executive Officer Steven Roth called Mamdani's video "irresponsible and dangerous" and made a public plea to the mayor to be more welcoming to businesses.
"What do we do at 350 is still a point of discussion internally, but what is no longer a point of discussion is when we moved from Chicago, there was a debate between New York and Miami," Griffin said. "It's unquestionably true that we made the right choice."
Citadel has broken ground on its new headquarters in Miami's Brickell neighborhood and construction for the tower is expected to begin soon, according to a spokesperson for the firm. As of late last year, the cost was estimated at $2.5 billion.
Beyond his criticism of Mamdani's handling of the pied-a-terre tax, Griffin also found fault with what he said was hostility to business among leaders in New York and other liberal-leaning states.
"We want to be in a state that embraces business, that embraces education, that embraces personal freedom and liberty and that embraces people having an opportunity to live the American dream," Griffin said. "Not a dream of redistributive handouts that leave people dependent on government for their lives and their livelihoods."
(With assistance from Tim Annett and Laura Nahmias.)
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This story was originally published May 5, 2026 at 9:56 PM.