Citadel founder Ken Griffin is escalating his feud with New York City’s mayor across the Atlantic, announcing Tuesday he will bypass City Hall and meet directly with Gov. Kathy Hochul later this week to discuss the state’s economic climate.
Speaking at a global financial summit in Oslo, the 57-year-old hedge fund executive — worth an estimated $50.5 billion — ripped Mayor Zohran Mamdani for using his $238 million Manhattan penthouse as the focal point in a campaign for a new luxury real estate tax.
“What upset me was the personal attack,” Griffin said Tuesday during a panel discussion at the Norges Bank Investment Management conference in Oslo. “I think the willingness of a mayor of New York to make this a policy debate a personal attack, just demonstrated a profound lack of judgment.”
Earlier this month, Hochul proposed a new tax on second homes worth over $5 million that was backed by Mamdani. The so-called pied-à-terre tax is aimed at supporting Mamdani’s efforts to close New York City’s budget gap.
The public rift ignited on Tax Day, April 15, when Mamdani, a Democratic socialist, released a video titled, “Happy Tax Day, New York. We’re taxing the rich” that he shot in front of Griffin’s penthouse at 220 Central Park South on Billionaires’ Row.
“Here’s the real question: Is New York going to put their fiscal house in order and run itself from a position of strong government that’s pro-business?” Griffin asked the Norwegian audience. “Why do Americans think we can do socialism? We have none of that in our DNA.””
The chief of the $67 billion hedge fund added that he would meet with Hochul on Thursday to talk about the future direction of New York.
The rhetoric carries massive stakes for Midtown Manhattan’s commercial real estate market. Citadel is currently the driving force behind a $6 billion skyscraper redevelopment at 350 Park Ave.
Following Mamdani’s video, Citadel chief operating officer Gerald Beeson fired off an internal memo warning employees that the firm’s New York expansion could be jeopardized by hostile local politics.
He wrote that principals and team members have paid nearly $2.3 billion in city and state taxes over the past five years.
In the email, Beeson called it “shameful that he used Ken’s name as the example of those who supposedly aren’t carrying their fair share of the burdens associated with New York City’s often costly and wasteful spending.”
