Amancio Ortega’s Pontegadea Purchases Paris Hotel for $113M

Zara founder Amancio Ortega is continuing his quest for global real estate domination, spending nine figures to purchase a five-star hotel in one of the most famous cities in the world.

Ortega’s family office, Pontegadea, purchased the Hotel Banke in Paris for $113 million, Bloomberg reported. The seller of the central Paris hospitality property was Derby Hotels.

The 90-key hotel includes meeting rooms, a bar, a restaurant and an art collection. The hotel is in the heart of the Opera District and the site formerly housed the Palace and gardens of Queen Hortense, wife of Louis Bonaparte, before it was demolished in 1899 and rebuilt as the offices for the Banque Suisse et Française; it became a hotel in 2009.

The hotel is temporarily closed, though it’s unclear why.

This is the second property Pontegadea purchased in Paris in the past year. In 2024, it bought a commercial building for roughly $233 million, adhering more closely to the family office’s typical strategy of investing in luxury residential and commercial properties.

Paris isn’t Ortega’s only focus. Last week, it was reported that the Spanish billionaire was buying the Sabadell Financial Center in Miami’s Brickell neighborhood for about $275 million. New York-based KKR and Orlando-based Parkway are selling the 30-story office building.

Just weeks earlier, Pontegadea bought a 259-unit apartment tower in downtown Fort Lauderdale for $165 million, one of South Florida’s biggest multifamily sales of the year. Related Group sold the 44-story Veneto Las Olas at 201 South Federal Highway after completing the tower last year.

Pontegadea holds a 59 percent stake in Inditex, the world’s largest clothing firm. Ortega alone is worth $102 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, making him the wealthiest Spaniard and second-wealthiest European.

Last year, Mohari Hospitality, Omnam Investment Group and musician Pharrell Williams agreed to buy the historic former Hôtel Saint-James & Albany in Paris, according to CoStar.

— Holden Walter-Warner