AMANCIO Ortega, the billionaire founder of the Zara clothing chain, snapped up a luxury apartment building in Chicago for US$232 million to add to his growing US property portfolio.

Ortega’s family office Pontegadea acquired 727 West Madison from a joint venture of Ares Management and F&F Realty, according to a company spokesperson.

The purchase adds the 45-story building with its 492 high-end apartments to a growing roster of Ortega-owned landmark US properties including Meta Platforms’ headquarters in Seattle and Manhattan’s Haughwout Building.

Armed with a US$75 billion fortune founded on his controlling stake in Spanish clothes retailed Inditex, Ortega has accumulated a property portfolio valued last year at 18.1 billion euros (S$26.7 billion).

Spain’s richest man spent about US$1 billion in 2022 buying up US warehouses as he diversifies beyond his traditional focus on landmark office and retail space.

Some of Pontegadea’s latests acquisitions include a logistics hub some 60 miles east of Los Angeles, a warehouse in the Netherlands and an office building in central London.

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News of the purchase of 727 West Madison was published earlier by The Real Deal.

Pontegadea also owns stakes in energy and telecom infrastructure operators and renewable power generators, including stakes in Portuguese power and gas grid operator REN-Redes Energeticas Nacionais SGPS and in Spanish electricity transporter Redeia Corporacion. BLOOMBERG