Zara Billionaire Ortega Buys Brickell Office Building For $274M
Amancio Ortega, the Spanish billionaire and founder of clothing chain Zara, continues amassing Miami real estate after closing on the $274M purchase of a 25-year-old office tower in Brickell.
Ortega’s Ponte Gadea USA purchased the Sabadell Financial Center from an entity traced to KKR & Co. and Parkway, according to property records provided by Vizzda.
The tower was built in 2000 and was named the Sabadell Financial Center in 2010. KKR and Parkway purchased the property in 2018 for $249M.
KKR declined to comment on the sale.
The partners spent $10M in 2020 to renovate the 30-story office tower at 1111 Brickell Ave., upgrading its lobby, entrance, the 26K SF amenity deck and 18K SF of green space for yoga and programmed fitness classes.
The 523K SF building also has 8K SF of ground-floor retail with tenants like Carrot Express and Vice City Bean Coffee Bar. Office tenants include Sabadell United Bank, Telefonica USA, Morgan Stanley, Industrious and Baker McKenzie, according to a LoopNet listing.
Chris Lee and Sean Kelly from CBRE brokered the deal on behalf of the sellers, which entered into a contract to acquire the property in July, The Real Deal reported.
This is the largest South Florida office deal of the year so far, outpacing the back-to-back February deals in Fort Lauderdale, where the Las Olas Centre I and II sold for $208M and the Bank of America at Las Olas City Centre traded for $221M.
Ortega's family office has been one of the most active buyers in the market. Ponte Gadea in June spent $165M on an apartment tower that Related Group developed in Fort Lauderdale. Last month, it picked up a 23K SF retail property in Miami’s Design District for $30M.
