Historic cottage site may sell to billionaire Ken Griffin as he buys out city block

Ken Griffin has been buying up a block of Brickell piece by piece for the last several years.

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Now, the billionaire Citadel founder and CEO wants to purchase the last remaining parcel: the 121-year-old Jackson cottage at 190 SE 12th Terrace.

An LLC connected with Griffin wants to buy the property from the city of Miami for about $3 million. City commissioners will decide on Thursday whether to sell the white wood-frame cottage, which is currently leased by the Dade Historic Trust.

The city-owned lot on which the Jackson cottage stands is the last piece of the block, which extends from Brickell Bay Drive to Brickell Avenue, that Griffin doesn’t own. He has spent over $700 million since 2022 amassing several acres of property in the heart of Miami’s financial district.

The centerpiece of Griffin’s plans for the block is the 54-story, multibillion-dollar office tower that will house Citadel’s global headquarters. Griffin paid $363 million for the 2.5-acre site in 2022, around the time he announced he was moving the company’s headquarters from Chicago to Miami. The tower at 1201 Brickell Bay Drive will be one of the tallest buildings in Miami once completed. Work began on the site earlier this year.

Griffin bought the 1221 Brickell Ave. office tower and parking garage, which occupies much of the block, for $286.5 million in 2022. And he recently completed a full buyout of the other major building on the block, the Solaris condo tower. Griffin reportedly spent about $125 million buying out the 138-unit building over the course of several years.

Among Miami’s billionaires, Griffin has become one of the city’s most vocal proponents. Last month, Griffin said he was “doubling down” on Miami and announced revised plans for his Brickell development, which now include a 300-unit residential building and a parking garage, as well as expanded office space in the tower.

The construction of the Solaris tower just feet from the Jackson cottage, barely 20 years ago, was controversial with preservationists and Dade Heritage Trust. It not only overwhelmed the historic property, but on several occasions, falling construction debris damaged the roof and garden of the cottage.

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Though modest, the Jackson cottage has long been recognized as of the most important and last surviving buildings from Miami’s earliest days as a city. Jackson, the pioneering physician after whom Jackson Memorial Hospital is named, built the cottage to house his medical practice next to his home, demolished in the 1990s, in downtown Miami.

Citadel spokesperson David Millar said in a statement that the company is “in active discussions with the DHT and City of Miami about a long-term preservation plan” for the historic property.

What preservationists say

Christine Rupp, executive director of Dade Heritage Trust, the nonprofit preservation group that restored and has occupied and maintained the 121-year-old Jackson cottage since 1978, said she could not discuss the pending sale in any detail. But she stressed the cottage, which has stood on its Brickell lot since 1917, will be saved in any deal that’s made with Griffin.

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“From our perspective, preservation of the building is our main focus, and that’s going to happen,” Rupp said. “We are a tenant in a city-owned building. We have to focus on the future of Dade Heritage Trust and preserving the building. There could be an outcome here that could be a win-win for everyone involved, but I’m not at liberty to say anything else.”

News of the secretive Griffin deal shocked other preservationists. Former longtime Dade Heritage Trust director Becky Matkov questioned why there was no public discussion of the proposed sale before it turned up on the City Commission agenda.

Even if it’s moved elsewhere, Matkov said, it’s unlikely the building will have an equally prominent site. She said it would be a loss both for the city and Dade Heritage.

“We’ve gone through so much trouble to save that building,” Matkov said. “I’m upset they are giving up on a symbol of Miami‘s history. It’s very disheartening. This is like taking the flag and fleeing the country. People are so curious about it and why it’s there, and it leads to conversations about Miami’s history. Miami is losing its character and integrity.”

It’s unclear what role the city’s historic preservation board will play if the city sells the property to Griffin. The cottage, a protected historic building, can’t be legally altered, demolished or moved without board approval.

The secretive deal comes just five years after Dade Heritage Trust staved off attempts by the city to sell the small property or turn it into a dog park. The Trust instead signed a 10-year lease, overwhelmingly approved by Miami voters in a referendum, with options for renewal.

If the city approves the sale, this would be the second deal Griffin has reached to remove an important historic building from the Brickell neighborhood.

Last November, Griffin struck a controversial deal to move the bayfront home of William Jennings Bryan, one of Miami’s most significant historic buildings, from his private estate on Brickell Avenue to the publicly owned Vizcaya Museum and Gardens nearby.

Brickell, though home to ancient and extensive indigenous settlement and burial sites, as well as one of the earliest settled areas in the modern city, has relatively few protected historic sites or buildings.

From the early days of modern Miami, only a few buildings remain aside from the Jackson cottage and the Bryan home, including the original Miami High School bungalow, Southside School, Firehouse 4, First Presbyterian Church and Chateau Petit Douy, a castle-like mansion on Brickell Avenue that houses a high-end Mexican restaurant.

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