Miami approves $3M sale of historic Brickell cottage to billionaire Ken Griffin

With no meaningful discussion, Miami commissioners agreed to dispose of one of the city’s oldest and most significant historic buildings, approving the no-bid sale of a 121-year-old publicly owned cottage and the lot it occupies near the Brickell waterfront to billionaire Ken Griffin.

Commissioners voted 5-0 to approve the $2.98 million sale, negotiated behind closed doors with no public input, while providing no explanation of what will happen to the historically designated, classically inspired cottage, built by pioneering physician James Jackson as his medical clinic.

No one appeared during the brief hearing on behalf of Griffin, the founder and CEO of Miami-based hedge fund Citadel, and there was no explanation of the deal or the fate of the cottage from the commission dais or from the city administration.

Dade Heritage Trust, the preservation group that has occupied and maintained the cottage since 1978 under a lease from the city, said in a news release that Griffin will pay to move the building to Coconut Grove, while not specifying where precisely or disclosing what assurances it has that will happen. Trust director Christine Rupp said in the release the organization would own both the cottage and the land it would sit on.

Rupp said after the vote she had no further information to disclose.

“We are grateful to Ken Griffin for his generosity and the opportunity to establish The Dade Heritage Trust on its own property for the first time in our history, ensuring we can continue our stewardship and community engagement well into the future,” her statement says.

Documents released by the city, meanwhile, shed little light, but suggest the city is washing its hands of responsibility for the cottage. Sale documents say it may be moved to a “site to be selected by the Existing Tenant,” Dade Heritage Trust, while stating the city will not be involved in the negotiations between the Griffin-connected LLC that’s buying it and the Trust over the new site.

Citadel spokesperson David Millar did not provide further specifics about the future of the cottage either.

“The Dr. Jackson Medical Office is a tangible link to Miami’s earliest days as a growing city with a frontier spirit. We are proud to help secure its future in Coconut Grove, where it can continue to connect new generations with the people, places, and stories that helped shape Miami,” read a statement from Millar issued after the commission’s vote.

No commissioner discussed the deal. In a brief comment before voting to approve the deal, Commissioner Miguel Gabela said he has confidence in Griffin, calling him “a good corporate citizen and a man of his word.”

Mayor Eileen Higgins, who doesn’t have a vote on the commission but has assumed its chairmanship, said she supported the sale and said, without providing details, that it puts Dade Heritage Trust “in the driver’s seat.”

In brief comments to the commission, Rupp noted the Jackson cottage is not on its original site, though it’s been located in Brickell since 1917.

Jackson, after whom Jackson Memorial Hospital is named, built the modest wood cottage for his practice next to his home in downtown Miami in 1905. A buyer moved it by barge to 190 S.E. 12th Ter. in Brickell in 1917 and turned it into his home. The city purchased the building in the 1970s, and designated it a protected historic site in 1983. The cottage is also on the National Register of Historic Sites.

Dade Heritage Trust renovated and pays for all maintenance for the cottage, which has served as its headquarters and as a visitors’ center since 1978. Surrounded by trees and a garden, it’s been widely appreciated by residents and preservationists as a small surviving oasis of early Miami history even as it’s become hemmed in by skyscrapers.

Griffin, who is worth more than $50 billion, has spent over $700 million since 2022 buying up the block around the Jackson cottage, which runs from Brickell Bay Drive to Brickell Avenue, as he remakes a swath of the neighborhood. With the approval of his purchase of the Jackson cottage, Griffin will now own the entire block. He is also building a towering new headquarters for Citadel on the bayfront across the street.

The Jackson sale is the second deal Griffin has struck to strip Brickell of a historic building. Griffin had long been looking for a place to move William Jennings Bryan’s historic 1913 Villa Serena home off his bayfront Brickell estate. Earlier this year, Vizcaya Museum and Gardens announced it had agreed to take Villa Serena as a gift from Griffin.

News of the proposed Jackson cottage purchase, which did not surface publicly until publication of the commission meeting agenda for Thursday, stunned preservationists. Some say moving a historic building from its original or longtime location hurts its integrity by removing it from its historic and physical context.

“It came as a big surprise,” said Beatrice Brickell, great-grandaughter of William and Mary Brickell, after whom the neighborhood is named, in a phone interview ahead of Thursday’s commission meeting. “I feel like we need to have more input from people in the community.”

During public comment before the vote, some preservationists expressed support for the sale, but others asked the city for more transparency and open discussion before a decision on the sale was finalized.

“The decision seems to be already made,” Miami history blogger Casey Piket told commissioners, while alluding to other efforts to move historic buildings to make way for development. “Brickell has very few historic assets left. They’re not just hot potatoes. They actually mean something in the space that they’re in.”

Several residents said they shared concerns about what they saw as a secretive deal between the billionaire businessman and the city.

“Residents have been left with more questions than answers,” said Henrietta Schwarz. “Too much about this transaction has remained behind closed doors.”

Becky Matkov, speaking for preservation group The Villagers, said the deal between the Trust and Griffin could turn out to be “excellent,” but she urged commissioners to defer approval until the plan can get a full public airing.

“The public is still entitled to hear the plan” before the sale is approved, Matkov, a former Dade Heritage Trust director, told commissioners.

In a letter read to commissioners, Beatrice Brickell urged commissioners to keep the cottage in Brickell, suggesting it could be relocated to the city’s bayfront Brickell Park, where the family mausoleum is.

Commissioner Damian Pardo, whose district includes Brickell, said he agreed there had been insufficient information provided to the public, but promised before voting to approve the sale that details would be forthcoming soon.

He noted that the city’s historic preservation board would have a say in any move of the Jackson building. Though it doesn’t have authority over a city decision to sell a historic property, the board can exercise oversight of a move and renovation of the cottage, which is designated as a protected landmark.

After the vote, Beatrice Brickell said the newly organized Mary Bulmer Brickell Foundation will continue lobbying to move the cottage to Brickell Park, rather than Coconut Grove. She said there’s “more to be determined” about the future of the historic building.

Its site for the past 109 years, meanwhile, seems likely to become part of a new Griffin development. Griffin paid $286.5 million for an abutting office tower and parking garage at 1221 Brickell Ave., and he recently finished buying out the Solaris condo tower next door to the Jackson cottage. Griffin reportedly spent around $125 million over the course of several years buying owners out of the 138-unit condo, which is just 20 years old.

Last month, Griffin announced updated plans for the Brickell assemblage, including a 300-unit residential building and a parking garage, as well as additional office space in the tower now under construction across Brickell Bay Drive.