Amancio Ortega’s global buying spree just ran into a roadblock.
Pontegadea, the family office of the Spanish billionaire, agreed to sell 366 Madison Avenue in Midtown Manhattan for $50 million, Bloomberg reported. The Sioni Group is the contracted buyer; neither firm responded to requests for comment from the outlet.
The sale price is more than half off what Ortega paid to acquire the building roughly two decades ago, when he spent $115.5 million for the office building. The property spans 85,000 square feet, breaking down the latest sale to $588 per square foot.
An Eastdil Secured team including Will Silverman, Gary Phillips, Jeff Organisciak is advising on the deal, according to the Commercial Observer.
Ortega’s been buying properties all over the globe in recent years, but even the founder of the Zara fast fashion empire isn’t immune from the post-pandemic office doldrums.
This summer, Pontegadea bought the 30-story Sabadell Financial Center in Miami’s Brickell for about $275 million and the 44-story, 259-unit Veneto Las Olas apartment tower in downtown Fort Lauderdale for $165 million.
Globally, his firm recently paid $113 million for the five-star 90-key Hotel Banke in central Paris. And in May, it paid $284 million for a 290,000-square-foot office building in Barcelona that houses the headquarters of Spanish book publisher Planeta.
As of July, Forbes put his net worth at $115 billion, which made him the 13th richest person worldwide at the time.
Even if Ortega’s net worth puts him in a different stratosphere from most, he can take solace in knowing he’s not alone in Manhattan’s tricky office market.
Just last week, Savanna entered into contract to buy the leasehold on Westbrook Partners’ 444 Madison Avenue for $50 million. Westbrook bought the lease on the 1930s-era office building for $314 million in 2007, but recently defaulted on its Wells Fargo $120 million loan.
— Holden Walter-Warner
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