Billionaire hedge funder Ken Griffin is selling a commercial building on one of South Florida's wealthiest retail corridors to the world's largest landlord.
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Blackstone has agreed to purchase a 49K SF retail and office building on Worth Avenue in Palm Beach, the wealthy enclave's main shopping and dining strip, for $86M from an entity tracing to Citadel.
“High-street retail continues to experience strong fundamentals, and Palm Beach represents one of the highest performing luxury retail markets in North America,” Blackstone Real Estate principal Elena Clarfield said in a statement.
The sale price is only slightly above the $83M Griffin paid for the three-story, 52-year-old building in 2023, according to property records provided by Vizzda. The building counts Truist Bank and yacht brokerage Ferretti Group among its ground-floor tenants.
Griffin, who just completed taking over an entire block in Miami for his company's planned $2.5B headquarters, sold a neighboring site on Worth Avenue last year for $80M to TZ Capital.
A representative for Citadel didn't respond to a request for comment.
Blackstone's deal follows several significant deals this year on Worth Avenue, home to luxury boutiques like Chanel, Louis Vuitton and Ferragamo.
In March, Reuben Brothers and Crown Onyx Investments purchased the 128K SF Esplanade 150 Worth Ave. for $200M, and Acadia Realty Trust purchased a 10K SF building at 225 Worth Ave. for $43M.
Palm Beach retail has a vacancy rate of less than 1% and the highest rent in the county, at nearly $92 per SF, according to a Cushman & Wakefield report.
Retail vacancy in Palm Beach County overall sits at less than 4%, and average rents are nearing $39 per SF, up 7% year-over-year, according to the report. There is nearly 370K SF of retail under construction, and retail tenants have absorbed more than 230K SF in 2026.
Investment sales in the county reached $690M through the first half of this year, the second-busiest first half in the market's history and the highest total since 2022, according to Cushman. Investor demand is expected to remain strong.
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