Billionaire Ken Griffin buys Miami's Mana Wynwood for $1.1 billion

Billionaire Ken Griffin has closed his purchase of Mana Wynwood, the sprawling events campus in Miami's Wynwood neighborhood, for about $1.1 billion, clearing the way for the new Carnegie Mellon University campus he is funding.

Moishe Mana, the founder and chairman of Mana Common, confirmed on Wednesday that he had sold about 30 acres of his Wynwood holdings to the Citadel founder. Mana called it the largest land assemblage deal in Florida history.

The sale came on the same day Carnegie Mellon announced Griffin's $3 billion gift to the university, the largest ever made by an individual to a university. Of that total, $2 billion will go toward building Carnegie Mellon University Miami. The university says the campus will cover more than 35 acres in Wynwood, with construction set to begin in 2027 and the first students expected in 2028, pending regulatory approvals.

The deal had been in the works for more than a year. The Real Deal first reported in August that Griffin was close to buying the complex, with sources putting the price anywhere from $700 million to more than $1 billion. Neither side confirmed it at the time. In January, Mana and a spokesman for Griffin had told the publication there was no deal.

Mana will keep running the property's existing events for the foreseeable future and will hold on to more than 15 acres elsewhere in the neighborhood. He plans to keep developing his holdings in downtown Miami.

The sale is a large return on a bet Mana made years before Wynwood became one of Miami's most expensive districts. The Israeli-born developer bought a stalled industrial complex for about $5 million and turned it into Mana Wynwood, an events and exhibition campus that anchored the neighborhood's shift away from warehouses and vacant lots. The property now sits at the center of a district known for its street art, restaurants and new office and residential projects.

"Wynwood helped build Miami's cultural infrastructure," Mana said.

The purchase is Griffin's second major Wynwood deal this year. Earlier, he teamed up with Goldman Properties to buy Sterling Bay's 545wyn office building for $181 million, which was the largest commercial real estate deal in Miami-Dade County this year until now. Griffin has spent well over $1 billion on South Florida real estate, including homes in Miami and Palm Beach and a planned headquarters tower for Citadel in Brickell.

Griffin moved Citadel and Citadel Securities to Miami from Chicago in 2022. He has since become one of the biggest private investors in the city, both through his property purchases and through gifts to local schools, hospitals and universities. The Carnegie Mellon campus is the largest of those commitments by far, and the Wynwood land gives the university a single, large site close to downtown.

Carnegie Mellon plans to build the Miami campus around research problems rather than traditional academic majors, with early work focused on human health and biological discovery, national security, energy and climate resilience, and advanced manufacturing. Once complete, the campus is expected to hold more than 3,500 students.

Griffin's fortune comes from Citadel, the hedge fund he started in 1990, and Citadel Securities, one of the world's largest market makers. Bloomberg estimates his net worth at $57.5 billion, while Forbes puts it at $60.5 billion.