Ken Griffin pays $37M for Star Island property

    Billionaire hedge funder Ken Griffin pays $37M for Star Island property

    A company tied to billionaire hedge fund manager Ken Griffin paid $37 million for a double-lot on Miami Beach’s Star Island, where a number of multimillion-dollar sales have closed in recent months.

    Stuart Miller, executive chairman of Lennar Corp., sold the property at 11 and 12 Star Island Drive to 11 Star Island LLC, a Delaware company that lists Citadel’s Chicago address, property records show.

    Griffin is founder, CEO and co-chief investment officer of Citadel, a Chicago-based hedge fund that’s been operating a temporary trading room in Palm Beach during the pandemic. Griffin owns some of the most expensive residential properties around the world. In South Florida, he owns two penthouse units at the ultra luxury condo building Faena House in Miami Beach, and has assembled land in Palm Beach for more than $350 million.

    Miller sold the double lot through a land trust managed by attorney Brian Bilzin in an off-market deal.

    Star Island — home to celebrities including Sean “Diddy” Combs, Gloria and Emilio Estefan, and most recently, Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez — is experiencing some resident turnover. Lopez and Rodriguez last week spent $32.5 million for the mansion at 13 Star Island Drive, next to the property that Miller just sold. The estate on the other side of Lopez and Rodriguez’s home, at 14 Star Island Drive, sold the same day to an unknown buyer for $24 million. And in July, Miller sold 22 Star Island Drive for $49.5 million.

    The island, with only waterfront properties, is among the high-end neighborhoods in South Florida experiencing a jump in activity during the pandemic, as buyers from high-tax states continue to buy homes in Florida.

    A year ago, Miller sold 10 Star Island Drive for $17.5 million. His land trust paid $27 million for the lots at 10, 11 and 12 Star Island Drive in 2006. Coupled with this latest deal, that means he more than doubled his investment, by selling for a total of $54.5 million.

    On Star Island, where his late parents lived at 23 Star Island Drive, Miller is now left with 4, 5, 6 and 7 Star Island Drive.