Zara billionaire hits $720M spree for logistics spread

Amancio Ortega’s interest in industrial assets extends far beyond the City of Brotherly Love.

Pontegadea, the family office of the Spanish textile billionaire, purchased five logistics properties from Realty Income across the United States for about $722 million, Bloomberg reported. Spanish daily El Pais first reported the deal.

The Philadelphia Business Journal reported Pontegadea recently bought a 1 million-square-foot facility in Northeast Philadelphia for $148.1 million. That deal appears to be part of a much larger transaction with Realty Income.

The office also picked up logistics centers in South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia. Nestle SA, FedEx, Amazon and TJX are among the long-term tenants occupying space across the portfolio.

The deals are part of a much wider diversification of assets for Pontegadea. In addition to picking up a small warehouse in Wisconsin prior to the Realty Income deal, the company invested in a subsea telecommunications operator and has made deals in the energy, renewable power, electricity transmission and natural gas transport fields.

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Ortega founded Inditex, the world’s largest clothing retailer and parent company to the Zara fashion brand. Bloomberg estimated the octogenarian was worth more than $44 billion, making him one of the world’s richest people.

Pontegadea is best known for its portfolio of office and retail properties, especially in South Florida. The company ended last year with $15.5 billion in property holdings across the globe.

In January, Ortega paid the equivalent of $961 million for Toronto’s Royal Bank Plaza skyscraper. The sale was one of the biggest in the world for an office property since the start of the pandemic.

More recently, Ortega’s real estate group agreed in July to buy a rental tower in New York City’s Financial District for $500 million. The 64-story, 500-unit property at 19 Dutch Street marks the firm’s first entry into the multifamily market.

— Holden Walter-Warner