Billionaire Ken Griffin is building a mansion for Mom in Palm Beach. Here's a look at it
So what do you build when you own the largest ocean-to-lake estate — measuring about 27 mostly vacant acres —in Palm Beach?
If you’re billionaire hedge-fund manager Ken Griffin, you do something nice for your mom. You build her an oceanfront mansion on eight of those acres at 60 Blossom Way.
When it’s completed, the mansion, its separate guesthouse and a utility building will measure, combined, about 44,000 square feet on the north side of the Griffin’s land. The mansion will be a home for his mother, Catherine Gratz Griffin, and offer accommodations for visitors and family members.
Plans approved by the town show the house and guesthouse will stretch about 350 feet along the beach. In all, Griffin estate's total contiguous beachfront measures about 1,400 feet — or a quarter of a mile. He began assembling the estate in 2012 and has spent more than $500 million buying 10 separate properties, according to an analysis of courthouse records and sales data by the Palm Beach Daily News.
The Palm Beach Architectural Commission signed off on the Blossom Way house in July 2022. And exactly a year the panel later approved revisions that would slightly move and expand a utility building on the northwest side of the property.
Griffin last year moved his Citadel hedge-fund and securities empire from Chicago to downtown Miami and paid a recorded $107 million for a waterfront house for his and his family’s use in nearby Coconut Grove.
But Griffin — whose net worth is estimated by Forbes at $34.4 billion — told an audience in Palm Beach this year he still plans to build himself a home on his Palm Beach estate. He also owns two side-by-side commercial buildings on Palm Beach’s Worth Avenue, which include a retail-and-office building he just bought in a personal transaction for a recorded $83 million.
Here’s a quick look at the in-the-works estate Griffin, 54, is building for his mother in Palm Beach.
What will the mansion look like?
The town-approved plans show the contemporary-style main house's living area will comprise 17,277 square feet. Plans call for two clean-lined, one-story wings to flank a central, two-story glass-fronted family room. It will be the first house to be built from scratch on Griffin’s estate.
A patio will connect the house to its one-story guesthouse — comprising two structures flanking a swimming pool — with 11,535 square feet at the north end of the property. The project also would include a service-and-utility basement area.
Who designed the mansion?
The project's lead architect is Jim Olson of Seattle-based Olson Kundig, who is collaborating with the architect of record, Daniel Kahan of Smith and Moore Architects in West Palm Beach. The landscaping plan is by Stoev Design Group of Sausalito, Califa.
What has Griffin said about the project?
During a talk last spring in Palm Beach at The Society of the Four Arts, the sometimes-tightlipped Griffin was surprisingly forthcoming about his plans for his residential property across town.
He pointed to his mother sitting in the audience, mentioned the house he was building her and said he and she “will be neighbors I hope for years to come,” Griffin said. “And I will have a home built next to my mom at some point in the next couple of years. But right here, right now — Mom's home comes first,” said Griffin, earning a round of applause.
He said he would love to retire someday in Palm Beach but hasn’t set a year for that milestone. “It's always 20 years out,” said Griffin, a native Floridian who has strong ties to Palm Beach County and graduated from Boca Raton High School.
Although Griffin had earned the town's approval to build a mansion for himself on the property several years ago, he pulled the plug on that project in 2018 after months of construction.
Where is Griffin’s Palm Beach land?
The Griffin estate is about a half-mile south of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Cub on the stretch of South Ocean Boulevard dubbed by locals as “Billionaire's Row.”
How did Griffin assemble the property for his mother's mansion?
The mansion and its grounds will occupy land formerly home to three houses bought for a grand total of $134.63 million in 2015, 2018 and 2019: Griffin paid a recorded $20.25 million for 10 Blossom Way; $15.25 million for 70 Blossom Way; and $99.13 million for 60 Blossom Way. Squaring off the parcel for his mother’s house is a swath of vacant land carved from part of Griffin's estate at 1265 S. Ocean Blvd.
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To see more photos and renderings of the mansion Ken Griffin is building for his mother in Palm Beach, click on the gallery at the top of this page.
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Darrell Hofheinz is a USA TODAY Network of Florida journalist who writes about Palm Beach real estate in his weekly “Beyond the Hedges” column. He welcomes tips about real estate news on the island. Email dhofheinz@pbdailynews.com, call 561-820-3831 or tweet @PBDN_Hofheinz. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Take a look at the Palm Beach mansion Ken Griffin is building for Mom