Griffin said he’s spent a lot of time walking around Brickell, where he’s bought not just the blank site where he’s designing a tower, but two buildings that give him a large footprint one block inland.
And he’s not shy about contrasting it with the city he left behind.
He recalls two stories about Chicago, which he sees devolving into anarchy: One of his senior colleagues was robbed after a person put “a gun to his head” as he was on a coffee run, and another was waiting for a car when confronted by “some random lunatic just trying to punch him in the head.” He called on New York Mayor Eric Adams to embrace a public safety strategy, or else risk going down the same path as Chicago.
Griffin’s personal properties across Miami also include Star Island, only accessible by a gated bridge, and in the affluent neighborhood of Coral Gables. Neither are in the city of Miami itself, which recorded 35 murders this year through mid-September, or about eight per 100,000 residents. That ratio is twice as high as New York’s, though just half of Chicago’s. When expanding to Miami-Dade County, the figure falls to about two per 100,000.
People who live and work in the area where Griffin will build a tower say they’ve noticed a larger unhoused population at night. Reported crimes over the past month include car thefts and assaults, according to the city’s website. The Brickell Homeowners Association has held meetings with police and staff of the Miami-Dade Homeless Trust to address neighbors' concerns, while Dade Heritage Trust, across the street from the Citadel site, installed cameras to monitor its grounds.
Meantime, Brickell continues to evolve. Before the pandemic, Brickell City Centre, a retail and dining destination, jump-started the area’s reinvention, along with luxury condo Brickell Flatiron by Italian developer Ugo Colombo. Now cranes and construction workers abound, with several new high-rises in the works, attached to names such as Cipriani, Baccarat and Stephen Ross. The Underline, a half mile of bike path and green space under the Metrorail that aims to become a 10-mile park, is Miami’s answer to New York’s High Line.
As Griffin sees it, nothing will compare to Citadel’s complex once it’s built in five or six years. A video rendering envisions the new tower, which could exceed 1,000 feet (305 meters), as a standout piece of architecture along Miami’s skyline. Griffin, who estimates it will cost $1 billion, wants retailers and restaurants on the ground floor that draw foot traffic like City Centre. He plans to personally pitch office space to some of the most valuable U.S. companies, like Apple Inc. Another idea is that it could one day be home to a computer science program in partnership with a nearby university.
“I'm going to work to create a building that's iconic in Miami,” Griffin said. “If it takes longer to fill the building, so be it. It's more important to me to create the right environment to draw human capital that drives Citadel.”
As with any waterfront property in Florida, climate change and natural disasters loom large. Citadel’s future headquarters is located on a stretch that floods even in a relatively mild Category One hurricane. It will be proofed for resilience, Griffin said, but noted that cities in Europe are at a lower sea level than Miami.
“The counternarrative you hear about Miami most frequently is we’re going to be underwater,” Suarez said in an interview. He noted that the Federal Emergency Management Agency recently lowered the city’s flooding score (though much of Brickell, as well as the entirety of Star Island and Miami Beach, remains under threat).
Griffin acknowledges there will be some challenges with the migration. The ages of Citadel’s Miami staff will likely resemble a barbell for a while, with those in the middle less likely to relocate given spouses’ jobs and children rooted in schools. Much of the junior staff will come from the class of 2023 and are expected to go mostly to New York, Miami and London. Miami headcount could reach 1,500 people in 10 years, he said.
Those in the hedge fund world are curious how the Citadel ethos will fit in Miami. Anshu Motwani, 42, worked for Blackstone Inc. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. before moving to Miami, joining Bayview Asset Management in Coral Gables, where she’s a senior executive. Had she stayed in New York, she said she couldn’t imagine ever having her current work-life balance.
“It will be curious to see if the culture of Citadel adapts slightly to this environment,” she said. “That face time—being in the office 80 hours a week—that just doesn't work in Miami.”
Some have speculated that Citadel could one day spawn hedge fund “cubs” that also set up shop in Miami, akin to those who worked for the late Julian Robertson at Tiger Management. That would go against the past three decades of precedent: While Citadel has produced a few high-profile launches, most investors who leave Citadel move to other firms, rather than starting their own hedge funds.
More likely is the continued influx of big law firms like Sidley Austin and Quinn Emanuel, which have planted a flag near the large financial institutions that have moved since the pandemic.
As for philanthropy: Griffin said education is his top priority, and he has staff already talking to private schools and advocates for public institutions about opportunities. Zhao, on the board of the Asian American Foundation, is excited about creating a strong community in Miami, where the Asian population is about 2%.
Even if newcomers give locally, though, they may bring their past ivory towers with them, leaving some wondering just how much they’ll integrate with the existing community.
“You've got people with such deep pockets, they're going to be creating entire networks of their own,” said nonfiction author and journalist Nicholas Griffin, who moved to Miami 10 years ago with his wife, Adriana Cisneros, chief executive officer of the Cisneros Group.
For now, it doesn’t look like Griffin’s $130 million in parting gifts to Chicago will be matched in one fell swoop around Miami. Griffin has given $25 million across the city in the last few years—much of it before he announced his move. He has already backed broadband access, the Miami Resiliency Fund and the Underline project, with Citadel employees set to volunteer there next month.
Griffin says if Suarez contacts him with a good idea, he’d certainly consider backing it. He recalls when he complained about potholes on a Chicago bike trail, and just a few days later, Rahm Emanuel presented a plan and budget. Griffin wrote a check on the spot.
Franklin Sirmans, director of the Perez Art Museum Miami, said he’d like Griffin’s Basquiat, because it would resonate in the city with its Haitian population. Griffin, who has an extensive art collection, has taken it out of Chicago’s Art Institute, but it’s not clear yet where it’s going.
“I don't think the character of Miami has ever been entirely locked,” Nicholas Griffin said. “It’s still such a young city—the future is up for grabs.”
--With assistance from Dave Merrill, Tom Maloney, Katherine Burton and Jennifer Epstein.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.