Pontegadea, the investment arm of Spanish businessman Amancio Ortega, is about to buy a high-rise apartment in New York for 500 million euros, according to market sources. As the US media have advanced and the company itself confirms, there are advanced “negotiations” for what would be the first residential building in the US within the real estate portfolio of the founder of Zara, until now more inclined to buy office or residential buildings. other typologies.

The building, at number 19 Dutch Street, is a 64-storey tower with an area of ​​nearly 28,000 square meters. With nearly 500 apartments, the terms in which the sale is being closed would mean paying around one million for each unit. Pontegadea sources have confirmed the existence of negotiations in an operation that “could be completed in the coming weeks”, although without giving more details about it.

Despite the fact that it would be a premiere in the US residential market, the investment strategy of the operation follows the logic of previous ones. Pontegadea focuses on what in real estate jargon is called trophy buildingsthat is, properties with construction quality and well located, so they are considered relatively safe investments.

The 19 Dutch tower is a 234-meter skyscraper in the financial district of New York, just three blocks from the World Trade Center, where the destroyed Twin Towers were located and today stands the tallest building in the city. It currently belongs to the Carmel Partners real estate company and has all the typical services of a luxury residential building, such as a concierge, a gym or a common room with views of the city on the roof.

The building was completed in 2019 and, according to its website, has some free floors, although it is 98% occupied, according to market sources. Among the homes that are free and on offer, there is a studio on the 48th floor with a bathroom that exceeds 4,600 euros per month for rent, while an apartment with one bedroom and a bathroom on the 33rd floor is offered for more than 5,500 euros .

The purchase of a building in the US is not, by any means, something exceptional for Ortega, considered in his day the richest man in the world. Currently, he is ranked 22nd on the list. Forbes, with a fortune estimated at 57,500 million. His main source of wealth comes from the textile giant Inditex, the group he founded and which brings together brands like Zara, Bershka or Massimo Dutti. But a large part of the profits that come from that business are reinvested and that is where Pontegadea comes into play. This firm brings together industrial investments, for example in the telecommunications sector, but stands out for its real estate portfolio.

In fact, all the assets that Pontegadea owns through its different companies added up to a value of more than 15,000 million before the pandemic, which is distributed mainly in three markets: the US, Spain and the United Kingdom. This means that it has more properties than the largest Spanish socimis (real estate investment companies), Merlin Properties and Colonial, which are listed on the Ibex 35. The last known purchase, last April, was an office building in the Scottish city of Glasgow, for which he paid 237 million.

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