Billionaire Ortega to buy Miami Design District’s Atlas Plaza

[NEW YORK] Billionaire Amancio Ortega’s investment firm is in contract to buy a luxury retail centre in Miami’s Design District.

Ortega’s family office, Pontegadea, agreed to buy Miami’s Atlas Plaza for more than US$105 million from owners Tricap, RFR Holding and Commerz Real, according to sources familiar with the matter who asked not to be named, citing private discussions.

A Newmark Group team, including Adam Spies, Marcella Fasulo, Adam Doneger and Eric Williams, is handling the sale.

Spokespeople for Pontegadea, RFR, and Newmark did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Representatives for Tricap and Commerz declined to comment.

The Inditex founder’s family office has been snapping up major real estate globally, striking deals this year including the purchase of Hotel Banke in Paris, an apartment building in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and a building on Barcelona’s Diagonal Avenue.

The Atlas Plaza building is 100 per cent rented to tenants, including Rolex, according to marketing materials viewed by Bloomberg. In recent years, Miami’s Design District has become a shopping haven with luxury retailers occupying much of the space and paying higher rent.

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Ortega has a net worth of nearly US$115 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. His family office has been investing mostly in luxury commercial and residential real estate across a handful of cities in Western Europe, the US and Canada. The firm already owns iconic sites, including New York’s Haughwout Building and the Post Building in London.

Still, the firm has offloaded real estate recently, selling a Manhattan office building for less than half the price it was purchased for nearly two decades ago. BLOOMBERG