John Griffin, the founder of former hedge fund Blue Ridge Capital, which had $9 billion in assets at its 2013 peak and $6 billion when it wound down four years later, is looking for a nice return on an Upper East Side home.
Griffin has listed a nearly 6,000-square-foot full-floor co-op on Fifth Avenue for a hefty $40 million, according to a real estate ad that appeared Thursday.
He and his wife, Amy, a venture capitalist and author, paid $32.3 million for the Central Park-adjacent apartment in 2008, public records show, and so could nab a nearly 25% profit.
Featuring five bedrooms, five and a half baths and a corner living room with a fireplace, the unit also has not one but two libraries, based on its floor plan. The two brokerages listing the uptown property have notably made the decision to not market it with listing photos, perhaps because they are not yet available but more likely out of respect for the sellers’ privacy. It sits in a 13-story, 16-unit limestone tower across from the Metropolitan Museum of Art at East 84th Street that was once also home to actor, director and producer Robert Redford.
The Griffins may be ready to move on from the apartment but maybe not the neighborhood. They still appear to own a townhouse on East 67th Street that once belonged to Penthouse magazine publisher Bob Guccione. The Griffins bought it from billionaire investor Philip Falcone in 2019 for $77.1 million in the priciest-ever city townhouse transaction, a record that still appears to stand, though there have been more-expensive listings.
Griffin, who kicked off his Wall Street career working for hedge fund pioneer Julian Robertson, launched Blue Ridge in 1996 reportedly with $55 million in assets under management. In 2008, the year when he purchased the co-op amid a rough patch for investors because of the financial crisis, Blue Ridge supposedly was down just 8%, a much better showing than that of its peers.
In 2002 the Griffins bought a 1,500-acre spread on New Zealand’s North Island that touched off a debate over foreign ownership of property. In a compromise with government officials, the couple donated high-profile portions of the seaside property, reportedly the first land sighted by explorer Captain James Cook when arriving in New Zealand, into public ownership and promised not to commercially develop the rest. Robertson, who died in 2022, owned property in New Zealand as well.
Sami Hassoumi, the agent with Brown Harris Stevens with the listing, did not return an email for comment by press time, and neither did Adam Modlin, of Modlin Group, the other broker on the property.
