New York Metropolis Mayor Zohran Mamdani marked tax day by making good on one among his most outstanding marketing campaign guarantees, and he did it whereas outdoors hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin’s entrance door—and the Citadel CEO price over $51 billion didn’t prefer it one bit.
In a video posted on Tax Day by the NYC Mayor’s Workplace, Mamdani introduced town’s first-ever pied-à-terre tax: an annual charge on luxurious properties valued above $5 million whose house owners don’t reside in New York full-time. The video, which has already drawn almost 470,000 views and 48,000 likes, was shot outdoors 220 Central Park South, the constructing the place Griffin owns a four-floor penthouse he bought in 2019 for $238 million, then the best worth ever paid for a house in the US.
“When I ran for mayor, I said I was going to tax the rich,” Mamdani mentioned within the one-minute clip. “Well, today we’re taxing the rich.”
However every week later, Griffin’s COO at Citadel, Gerald Beeson, hinted the corporate won’t transfer ahead with an enormous enterprise in a Midtown development mission.
“We are about to commence the redevelopment of 350 Park Avenue, creating 6,000 highly paid construction jobs and supporting the creation of more than 15,000 permanent jobs in mid-town New York,” wrote Beeson in a letter considered by the Wall Avenue Journal. “The project—if we move forward—will entail more than $6 billion dollars of spending.”
“We have nearly 2,500 colleagues who have chosen to build their careers here,” Beeson wrote within the letter, the Journal reported. “We understand that our hard work and success will, on occasion, make us targets for political rhetoric. But it should not diminish the pride we take in building firms that will continue to help New York City thrive for decades ahead.”
Mamdani’s marketing campaign promise to “Tax the Rich”
The pied-à-terre tax, which is backed by Gov. Kathy Hochul and nonetheless requires approval from the state legislature, would apply to one-to-three-family properties, condominiums, and co-ops price over $5 million when the proprietor’s major residence is outdoors New York Metropolis. Mamdani’s workplace estimates the tax would generate not less than $500 million yearly, with income directed towards free childcare, avenue cleansing, and neighborhood security.
Griffin relocated Citadel’s headquarters from Chicago to Miami in 2022, drawn by Florida’s lack of a private earnings tax. He shares the transfer with Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and Google cofounders Larry Web page and Sergey Brin, all of whom just lately left high-tax states and now preserve Florida residences. Griffin additionally just lately paid $38 million for a duplex residence up the block from the place Mamdani shot the video, in line with the Wall Avenue Journal.
Mamdani mentioned the tax would repair “a fundamentally unfair system.” “These units are sitting empty,” he mentioned. “And even so, they’re able to reap the huge financial rewards of owning property in, dare I say, the greatest city in the world.”
The pied-à-terre tax has circulated in New York coverage circles for years however has repeatedly stalled in Albany. Mamdani just lately pushed a wealth tax in New York however mentioned town could be pressured to as a substitute improve property taxes if the tax didn’t get state approval. Neither Griffin nor the mayor’s workplace responded to Fortune’s request for remark.
In a submit on X a number of days after the video was revealed, billionaire Pershing Sq. CEO Invoice Ackman backed Griffin and Citadel within the public backwards and forwards.
“Non-residents who spend millions of dollars on NYC apartments help drive NYC’s economy,” wrote Ackman. “The Ken Griffins of the world make NYC high end development viable, driving high-paying construction, brokerage, legal, marketing, and other jobs in NYC. We should be applauding Ken for spending $238 million in NYC, not attacking him for doing so.”
A model of this story was revealed on Fortune.com on April 16, 2026.
