Published by TrenBuzz.com | May 8, 2026
Key Points at a Glance – $238 Million Penthouse
- NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced a pied-à-terre tax on Tax Day — filming outside Ken Griffin’s $238 million penthouse at 220 Central Park South.
- Griffin called the video “creepy, weird, and frightening” — and Citadel immediately filed expansion permits in Miami in response.
- The tax applies to luxury second homes valued above $5 million whose owners don’t primarily live in NYC.
- Mamdani’s office estimates it will generate $500 million annually — for childcare, street cleaning, and neighborhood safety.
- What everyone missed: Griffin’s $238 million penthouse is assessed at just $9.4 million by the city for tax purposes.
- NYC’s property tax system dramatically undervalues luxury condos while overtaxing renters and middle-class homeowners.
- Bill Ackman backed Griffin, saying billionaires buying NYC real estate “help drive NYC’s economy.”
- The tax still needs Albany’s approval and faces significant political hurdles.
- Yale law professor David Schleicher warned: “If this is all there is, New York’s rich can be pretty happy.”
- This is only a small step — Mamdani’s bigger income tax proposals on the wealthy have already been blocked by Governor Kathy Hochul.
The video was perfectly staged. Mayor Zohran Mamdani, standing outside a gleaming Central Park South skyscraper, looked into the camera and said what millions of New Yorkers wanted to hear: “We’re taxing the rich.” Behind him stood the building where Ken Griffin’s four-floor penthouse sits at the top — silent, largely empty, and worth $238 million.
Mamdani singled out billionaire financier Ken Griffin’s $238 million penthouse as a prime example of the “fundamentally unfair system” that allows the city’s richest to store their wealth in homes that sit empty most of the time. Griffin and opponents of Mamdani were enraged.
What the Tax Actually Does
In a video posted on Tax Day by the NYC Mayor’s Office, Mamdani announced the city’s first-ever pied-à-terre tax: an annual fee on luxury properties valued above $5 million whose owners do not live in New York full time. Mamdani’s office estimates the tax would generate at least $500 million annually, with revenue directed toward free childcare, street cleaning, and neighborhood safety.
The pied-à-terre tax is “specifically designed for the richest of the rich — those who store their wealth in New York City real estate, but who don’t actually live here,” Mamdani said. “Most of the time, these units are sitting empty because, again, they don’t actually live here.”
What Everyone Actually Missed — The $9.4 Million Dirty Secret
Left unsaid by both sides: Griffin’s 23,000-square-foot penthouse — the most expensive home ever sold in the United States — is valued at just $9.4 million by the city for tax purposes. Little of the city’s most expensive real estate is actually taxed at its market value. This creates a powerful incentive for the world’s richest people to park their money in New York City real estate and contributes to the housing crisis pricing out everyday residents.
That gap — $238 million in reality, $9.4 million on the tax rolls — is the actual scandal hiding underneath the viral video.
Griffin’s Response — Miami Wins, NYC Loses?
Citadel CEO Ken Griffin told CNBC his company has started shifting investment toward Miami. “In reaction to New York, we filed a permit with the city of Miami. We’ve added several hundred thousand square feet of new space in our new building,” he said. “We will add far more jobs in Miami over the next decade as an immediate and direct consequence of the mayor’s poor decision here.”
Griffin also claimed Mamdani’s video “put me in harm’s way,” referencing the 2024 assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside a midtown Manhattan hotel near his penthouse. “It was just in poor taste. Really poor taste,” he said.
The Billionaire Defense — Ackman Speaks Up
Billionaire Pershing Square CEO Bill Ackman backed Griffin publicly. “Non-residents who spend millions of dollars on NYC apartments help drive NYC’s economy,” he wrote. “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.”
The Hard Political Reality — A Small Step, Not a Revolution
A pied-à-terre tax is a small step in Mamdani’s goal to tax the rich, but it falls well short of his campaign pledge to raise income taxes on the wealthiest residents and large companies. New York Governor Kathy Hochul has rejected these tax hikes. “If this is all there is to the grand Mamdani tax vision, New York’s rich can be pretty happy,” said David Schleicher, a professor of property and urban law at Yale University.
The pied-à-terre tax has circulated in New York policy circles for years but has repeatedly stalled in Albany. The tax, backed by Gov. Hochul, still requires approval from the state legislature — a vote that is far from guaranteed.
The viral video made Mamdani famous and Griffin furious. But until New York fundamentally fixes a property tax system that lets billionaires pay taxes on $9 million of a $238 million home — the “tax the rich” slogan will remain exactly that: a slogan.
Disclaimer: This article is for general informational and news reporting purposes only. All quotes, tax assessments, and policy details referenced are based on publicly available sources including CNN, CNBC, Fortune, and Fox 5 NY as of May 7–8, 2026. The pied-à-terre tax has not yet been passed by the New York State Legislature as of publication. TrenBuzz.com does not provide tax or financial advice. Readers are encouraged to follow official government and credible news sources for the latest updates on NYC’s tax policy.