Billionaire Ken Griffin is well known for his real estate exploits, having made several record-breaking purchases over the years, including the most expensive home sold in US history – a $238 million apartment in New York City. Now he's working on a project in Palm Beach, Florida that will make him the owner of the most expensive residence not just in the United States, but in the entire world.
Griffin is reportedly prepared to spend anywhere from $150 million to $400 million on a massive mega-estate in Palm Beach, an investment that will, if all goes to plan, result in a property valued at around $1 billion once it's finished. And one source with ties to luxury real estate believes Ken shouldn't have any trouble hitting that $1 billion mark given the land he's already bought up in the area:
"If he spent nearly half a billion to buy up acres of land in Palm Beach over the last decade and is expected to spend $150 million more to build an entirely new home, that piece of property is worth at least $1 billion now."
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Griffin did in fact begin buying up land for this project about a decade ago, and has already spent a reported $450 million on the land and on tearing down the existing structures that stood there. In its place, he has planned a massive oceanfront mansion with 50,000 total square feet of living space. Of the 27 acres Griffin has secured for the property (seven acres more than Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago, also located in Palm Beach), eight of them will be taken up by the estate itself, construction on which has already begun.
It's the latest conquest in Griffin's real estate empire, which includes such coups as his $238 million Manhattan condo, which remains the most expensive home in the country, and has been since he bought it in 2019. Also in 2019, he spent $122 million on a mansion in London, itself a record-breaking price for the city. He did the same in his adopted hometown of Chicago in 2018, when he bought a condo for $58.5 million.
Griffin is probably best known for his real estate empire, but he's also accumulated a spectacular art collection as well, and with a similar proclivity for breaking price records. He was reported to be the first person to spend $500 million on artwork in a single transaction, splurging that amount on two paintings, one by famed abstract innovator Jackson Pollock. And in 2020 he spent $100 million on a piece by Jean-Michel Basquiat. Then there's the $43.2 million he spent on a rare contemporary copy of the United States Constitution in 2021, currently on display to the public.
