• Ken Griffin’s Chicago penthouse — listed for $10 million less than he paid for it — has a buyer.
• A representative for Griffin said his Florida real estate investments made up for the loss.
• Like Griffin, other wealthy residents have left Chicago, in part because of high taxes and crime rates.

Ken Griffin, the billionaire founder of the Citadel hedge fund, has found a buyer for his Chicago penthouse.

The six-bedroom apartment in the luxury No. 9 Walton building in the affluent Gold Coast neighborhood near Lake Michigan is under contract for an undisclosed amount, but its last price was $11 million , according to its Zillow listing.

The 7,500-square-foot property was put on the market in July for $11 million, which is $10 million less than the $21 million Cook County records show Griffin paid for it in 2017 .

Listing photos show the penthouse, which has a private rooftop pool, is unfinished. He never lived there.

The move comes as Griffin moves Citadel and his personal residence to South Florida.

A spokesperson for Griffin told Bloomberg that the loss is a minor setback in the context of his other real estate purchases.

“Although the value of Ken’s properties in his former hometown has declined, fortunately it is only a small loss compared to the appreciation he has enjoyed on his Florida real estate investments,” said Zia Ahmed, spokesperson for Citadel.

Griffin spent approximately $169 million on properties in Miami’s exclusive Star Island neighborhood between 2020 and 2023. In 2022, he spent more than $100 million on two bayfront homes in Coconut Grove, another affluent area of ​​Miami. He also amassed 27 acres in Palm Beach over a decade for about $450 million.

Griffin and the listing agents for the Chicago penthouse did not respond to requests for comment sent by Business Insider.

Brokers say Chicago’s luxury real estate market is losing steam

The relatively lower sales price is not surprising, according to Chicago-area real estate agents.

Broker Michael LaFido said super-prime properties, which he described as $10 million or more, are rare in the Chicago area. In 2023, he added, only four properties sold for that amount.

Meanwhile, in Miami, 55 properties over $10 million were sold in the second quarter of 2024 alone, according to real estate consultancy firm Knight Frank’s global report on super-prime properties.

Properties that cost eight figures are not common, according to Rafael Murillo, a Compass agent in Chicago.

“We’re just a much more affordable luxury market than Miami or New York,” he said.

Murillo also cited another luxury property that sold at a loss this year: a 6,100-square-foot condo in the city’s St. Regis Tower that was purchased for $8.2 million in 2021 and sold for $7 million in April.

High-profile listings in the suburbs also saw price drops. Basketball star Michael Jordan’s Highland Park mansion finally sold in September after being put on the market in 2012, according to his Zillow listing. Jordan listed the property for $29 million in 2012. It was most recently priced at $14.9 million.

Other wealthy homeowners sell their properties in Chicago

Griffin is one of several wealthy Chicago owners to dump their luxury properties at a loss this year, Bloomberg reported in March.

It says the city’s high taxes, crime rate and the introduction of a “real estate tax” on properties sold for more than $1 million have pushed many of the wealthiest residents out of Chicago for sale and moving to other cities including Miami and New York.

In 2017, Griffin purchased the Chicago penthouse, along with three other units in the same building, for a total of nearly $59 million — the largest real estate purchase in the city’s history, the Chicago Tribune reported .

Griffin put another unfinished penthouse in the building on the market for $9 million on Wednesday; he was listed on Zillow as contingent or under contract Friday. He paid $12.7 million for it. If it sells for full asking price, the loss will be relatively more modest: $3.7 million.

The other two units from this record purchase are also for sale.

Many wealthy residents first fled Chicago to its suburbs during COVID and then left Illinois altogether, LaFido told BI.

He said many ultra-wealthy buyers, who can afford a property worth more than $10 million, are no longer in Chicago, leaving sellers like Griffin to take the financial hit.

“If you’re going to build something $5 million or more in Chicago,” LaFido said, “you’re going to take a loss.”