Amancio Ortega takes out the checkbook again in the United States. The founder and largest shareholder of Inditex has reached an agreement for the purchase of an office building in Washington for 230 million dollars (about 208 million euros at current exchange rates) through his real estate investment vehicle Pontegadea. The asset was owned by Blackstone.
The building, which was built in 1964, is located near the White House and has twelve floors. The property is located at 815 Connecticut Avenue and is leased to, among others, the law firm Baker McKenzie, which has a lease through 2033 for almost half of the space.
In addition, among the tenants are Cornell University, Sumitomo Corp. of America and United Airlines, according to the local specialized publication Real Estate Alert.
This is Ortega’s fourth operation in the United States in just nine months. Thus, at the end of 2018, Pontegadea acquired another office building in Washington, known as The Investment Building, for about 385 million dollars (347 million euros).
In addition, Amazon’s landlord after closing last March the purchase from Troy Block of a complex made up of two buildings in Seattle for about 740 million dollars (668 million euros). In Chicago, Ortega acquired the Eurostars Magnificent Mile hotel for 72.5 million dollars (65 million euros).
The Spanish businessman has a portfolio of assets valued at 9,700 million euros, according to the latest accounts presented by the group in 2018. This places him as the third largest Spanish real estate agency by asset valuation behind Merlin and Colonial, with 12,375 million and 11,798 million, respectively. Although, in the case of Pontegadea, with hardly any debt.
