From The Palm Beach Post
By Darrell Hofheinz
Has Palm Beach property owner Ken Griffin inked the largest residential sale in U.S. history by paying $200 million for three floors in a New York City condominium?
It wouldn’t be out of character for the Chicago billionaire, who runs the Citadel hedge fund. Griffin did something similar in Palm Beach a few years ago, you might recall.
In late 2012 he bought four adjacent properties— three directly on the beach — on the South End’s Blossom Way. All told, he paid about $130 million for nearly 8 acres in the largest simultaneous single-buyer/multiple seller deal ever recorded on the island. In July, he added another property on the same street, paying $15.25 million for that one. His estate remains pretty much as he bought it, as his architect, Jeffery Smith, hasn’t yet presented plans for any house there.
Now Griffin may have topped that deal, if a story late last week by CNBC ‘s Robert Frank proves true. Frank reported unnamed sources as confirming that Griffin had paid $200 million for three mid-level floors in the under-construction 220 Central Park South building, which was designed by architect Robert Stern. In all, the triplex would comprise 18,000 square feet.