Inside Ken Griffin’s secret negotiation for Florida’s largest real estate

When Ken Griffin’s representatives first approached real estate titan, visionary and billionaire Moishe Mana about purchasing the very land he spent decades developing and crafting, Mana was not fully convinced.

“To be honest, they came and knocked on my door, I didn’t solicit it. It was not for sale,” Mana, the founder and chairman of Mana Common, told Fox News Digital. “I had the vision. I completed it… And then these guys walk to my office, and they tell me they want to buy it — my property, Mana Wynwood. I looked at them, I said, ‘It’s not for sale.’”

“Where do you find 30 acres in the coolest neighborhood in America, if not the world? It’s priceless, there’s no price to it,” he continued. “And back and forth, I said, ‘Listen, I have other properties, I have this, I have that.’ … But they mentioned it’s educational… And they mentioned it’s important to do, but they didn’t say the name. I didn’t know the name, but I figured it came from Ken Griffin… So [he’s] not going to do something small.”

“So I said ‘no,’ and they left… I needed to digest it, it was very big for me to digest, it’s a shock, kind of, and two days, three days, slept on it, woke up, went to sleep with it… So, then I said to my people, ‘You know what, call them, let’s talk to them again.’”

KEN GRIFFIN DOUBLES DOWN ON FLORIDA WITH RECORD $3B CARNEGIE MELLON GIFT

On Sept. 29, Mana closed the sale of approximately 30 acres in Wynwood to Citadel founder and CEO Ken Griffin for $1.1 billion — marking the largest land assemblage transaction in Florida history. Mana began investing in Wynwood in 2009 during the Great Recession, acquiring a distressed warehouse for approximately $5 million and eventually spending less than $70 million to assemble his Wynwood portfolio.

Together, Citadel CEO Ken Griffin and billionaire real estate titan Moishe Mana broke a Florida record for the most expensive land transaction in history at $1.1 billion. (Getty Images)

The land acquisition is part of Griffin’s broader commitment to Carnegie Mellon University, which includes a record $3 billion gift. The university says $2 billion will support the launch of Carnegie Mellon University Miami, while $1 billion will support its Pittsburgh campus. The gift is the largest individual donation in the history of higher education.

The deal took nearly three years from initial contact to close, Mana explained, with the contract formally executed 18 months prior. The sold assemblage will establish a brand-new campus for Carnegie Mellon University, transforming Miami from a destination for tax-driven wealth migration into an international hub for higher education and technological research.

“Although it lasted two-and-a-half, three years, the whole…