Billionaire Ken Griffin's Citadel doesn't appear ready to give up on New York City.
The company's planned redevelopment of a skyscraper in the heart of Midtown Manhattan is moving forward after Citadel floated the idea of scrapping the project as a result of a public feud with Mayor Zohran Mamdani earlier this year
Mamdani had used Griffin's home in a video promoting his new pied-a-terre tax, which targets richer residents in the city. But the billionairesaid that he felt like the video had put him in harm's way, and called the clip "creepy and weird."
Here's what to know.
Why was Ken Griffin mad at Mamdani?
In April, Mamdani released a video explaining his new pied-à-terre tax. The proposal plans to "levy an annual surcharge on one to three family homes, condominiums and co-ops valued
above $5 million when owners have a separate primary residence outside of New York City," the city said at the time.
The mayor stood outside of Griffin's home and used it as an example of who will be subject to the tax.
Griffin bought the penthouse, located in 220 Central Park South, in 2019 for around $238 million, WSJ reported at the time. It set the record for the most expensive home ever sold in the U.S.
At the time, Griffin's company put out a statement to its employees calling the video "shameful," according to the employee email first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
Gerald Beeson, Citadel's COO, sent an email disagreeing with Mamdani's use of Griffin's home in the tax-the-rich video. He also hinted at the possibility of the company not going through with the new skyscraper in the city.
“We are about to commence the redevelopment of 350 Park Avenue, creating 6,000 highly paid construction jobs and supporting the creation of more than 15,000 permanent jobs in mid-town New York,” Beeson said.
“The project — if we move forward — will entail more than $6 billion dollars of spending.”
Griffin then said that the office redevelopment project in New York City was “still a point of discussion internally,” but that the "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."
NYC skyscraper construction to continue as planned
Despite the comments, 350 Park Avenue will continue on as planned, according to an earnings call this week by Vornado. CEO Steven Roth said that the plan for the 62-story building, which Citadel is a large partner of, is carrying on.
“We intend to shortly exercise our investment option to participate in this deal at our maximum ownership percentage of 36 percent,” Roth said, according to New York Magazine. “alongside Ken Griffin as our 60 percent partner and Citadel as our 1-million-square-foot anchor tenant.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Ken Griffin pushes on with NYC Citadel skyscraper despite Mamdani feud
