Ken Griffin’s Miami fortnight: the Wynwood land under his Carnegie Mellon campus, $25 million more for Baptist Health and a helipad fight

Ken Griffin, the Citadel founder, writes two kinds of big checks in Miami: land and gifts, and health care. The biggest closed on Sept. 29, when Moishe Mana completed the sale of approximately 30 acres in Wynwood to Griffin for $1.1 billion, under a contract formally executed 18 months earlier (Fox Business). Commercial Property Executive reports the same price for a 30-acre site (Commercial Property Executive). Commercial Observer says Griffin’s staff first offered about $800 million; Mana initially turned it down, reversed course three days later, and the deal “ballooned to $1.1 billion,” closing with no outside debt or partners for Griffin (Commercial Observer).

The land is headed to a university. AP reported Sept. 30 that Griffin is giving Carnegie Mellon $3 billion, and that $2 billion of it will build a 35-acre campus in Wynwood for around 3,500 undergraduate, master’s and doctoral students, with construction scheduled to begin next year (AP via ABC News). Carnegie Mellon calls the gift “more than $3 billion”: it establishes Carnegie Mellon University Miami and channels $1 billion to Pittsburgh, $500 million for the School of Computer Science and $500 million in flexible support. CMU Miami is planned for nearly 300 faculty and more than 600 staff, with the first students in 2028, “pending appropriate regulatory approvals” (Carnegie Mellon University). Griffin’s $2 billion for Miami “includes the value of land purchased from developer Moishe Mana” (Refresh Miami), and Commercial Observer says the pledge “includes the value of the real estate” (Commercial Observer).

Your stake: if the deed records $1.1 billion, Miami-Dade’s documentary stamp tax at 60 cents per $100 comes to $6.6 million and the county’s 45-cent surtax to $4.95 million, $11.55 million in all (Florida Department of Revenue; our arithmetic), and state law sends the surtax to the county’s Housing Assistance Loan Trust Fund for low- and moderate-income housing (s. 125.0167). The Property Appraiser’s record shows no sale of the main parcel after 2010 yet (Miami-Dade Property Appraiser). Once a university uses the land exclusively for education, state law exempts it from property tax (s. 196.198); we put no dollar figure on that.

The money

The seller kept a lot and paid little. Mana spent less than $70 million assembling his whole Wynwood portfolio, starting with a distressed warehouse he bought for about $5 million in 2009, and he is keeping more than 15 acres there (Fox Business). The $1.1 billion is a payment to Mana for the land sold, not his profit; the sources do not give his cost for the acres he sold. The acreage itself differs by source: Fox Business and Commercial Property Executive say about 30 acres were sold, while Bisnow and Commercial Observer describe a roughly 35-acre property (Fox Business; Commercial Property Executive; Bisnow; Commercial Observer).

The county roll has not caught up. As of Oct. 12 the Miami-Dade Property Appraiser still lists Mannigan Holdings LLC, with a Jersey City, N.J., mailing address, as owner of the main Mana Wynwood parcel at 318 NW 23 St. and 2217 NW 5 Ave., about 8.7 acres, with a 2026 total value of $80,256,749, a city, county and regional taxable value of $21,826,541 and a school taxable value of $80,256,749; the only sales it lists are two dated Jan. 25, 2010, one for $975,000 from Wynwood Economic Development Corp, and it shows no sale after 2010 (Miami-Dade Property Appraiser). Appraiser records can lag the Clerk’s official records, so this does not show whether a deed has been recorded. The $58,430,208 gap between that parcel’s market and non-school taxable value is our arithmetic.

Baptist Health is the second check. On Oct. 7 Baptist Health broke ground on a 197,000-square-foot home for its neuroscience institute on the Baptist Hospital main campus, slated to open in early 2029, and announced an additional $25 million from Griffin, bringing his total support for neuroscience there to $75 million; the gift establishes a transformational impact fund for neuroscience research, innovation, education and prevention, and the institute is now the Baptist Health Kenneth C. Griffin Neuroscience Institute (Baptist Health South Florida). The Miami Herald reports the same $25 million and $75 million and says Griffin gave the first $50 million in 2024 (Miami Herald). Carnegie Mellon says that in total Griffin has committed roughly $2.4 billion to South Florida (Carnegie Mellon University).

How it works

A land gift to a university converts taxable private land into exempt public-purpose land, and the deed is where the public sees the price. Florida charges documentary stamp tax on the consideration in a deed; in Miami-Dade it is 60 cents on each $100, plus a 45-cent surtax on transfers other than single-family homes (Florida Department of Revenue). The surtax goes to the county’s housing assistance trust fund and may be used only to help finance housing for low- and moderate-income families (s. 125.0167). Once the land is owned and used exclusively for education by an educational institution, state law exempts it from property tax (s. 196.198). The price in the deed, once it appears on the public record, will be the first primary-record confirmation of the $1.1 billion that four outlets have reported.

What could still stop it

No primary record we have read shows the $1.1 billion; it rests on four news reports, and the Property Appraiser’s roll still shows the seller’s entity (Miami-Dade Property Appraiser). How much of the $2 billion Miami pledge is land value is not stated: the sources say the pledge includes the land’s value, and the value counted may not equal the price paid (Refresh Miami; Commercial Observer). Acreage varies by source. CMU’s Miami enrollment depends on regulatory approvals (Carnegie Mellon University).

Why it matters across Florida

The helipad shows where the ledger meets the neighbors. Griffin wants a helipad added to the already approved 3.5-acre megayacht marina at 120 MacArthur Causeway for his 308-foot yacht, Defy; leaders of eight nearby condominium buildings, about 2,000 residences, oppose it, and residents of Palm, Hibiscus and Star islands support it (World Red Eye). A Miami Beach land-use committee recommended it to the Planning Board on Sept. 24 with the city administration’s support (Bloomberg); Commissioner David Suarez chaired that committee, Commissioner Tanya Bhatt voted against because she wanted to defer, and Kasdin agreed to arrange a sound test (Miami Herald, Sept. 25). On Tuesday, Oct. 6, the Planning Board deferred it to Nov. 3; the applicant is One Island Partners, the attorney Neisen Kasdin, the helicopter an Airbus H160, and an approval would send it to the City Commission (Miami Herald). The same donor building a university campus is also asking a city board for a landing pad.

What to watch

The Wynwood sale and its stamps on the public record. The Miami Beach Planning Board, Nov. 3, then the City Commission. CMU Miami’s regulatory approvals, construction slated to begin in 2027 and the first graduate students in 2028 (Carnegie Mellon University Miami).