Amancio Ortega, founder of Inditex, continues to expand his portfolio through Pontegadea, the investment arm that concentrates on high-value properties. The latest move takes him to London, where Pontegadea acquired the old BBC headquarters on Foley Street for about £82 million, equivalent to €93 million at current exchange rates. The 4,000-square-meter building, nearing its centennial, already houses the Kier Group under a 25-year lease, underscoring a strategy that blends heritage assets with long-term tenancy income.
As reported by Cinco Días, the seller of the London asset was the Abrdn fund (formerly Standard Life Aberdeen), with advisory support from Savills. This purchase marks the second major deal by Ortega in a matter of weeks, following a March transaction in Dublin involving a building with 120 luxury apartments, further signaling Pontegadea’s renewed emphasis on diversified urban real estate holdings across Europe and North America.
Earlier moves included the acquisition of a luxury residential skyscraper in Seattle for $324 million, approximately €305 million, a deal that reinforced Ortega’s footprint in the Pacific Northwest. The Kiara tower, the Seattle asset, comprises 461 rental units near Amazon’s headquarters, expanding Pontegadea’s activities in a market where it has already invested about $1.5 billion, or roughly €1.41 billion. In October, the founder of Inditex closed another significant luxury tower purchase in New York, near $500 million (about €505 million), reinforcing a U.S. presence alongside European assets.
Across 2022, Pontegadea expanded its breadth with the acquisition of an office building in Glasgow, Scotland, for £200 million, approximately €237 million. Another global stake was the Royal Bank Plaza skyscraper in Toronto, highlighted as a landmark asset with a value near CAD 1.15 billion (over €874 million). Additional U.S. logistics and industrial assets entered the portfolio, including a distribution platform in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, occupied by FedEx for $35 million, around €34 million, and a distribution center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, purchased for about $148 million (roughly €147 million). These acquisitions together illustrate Pontegadea’s multi-market strategy, combining prime urban cores with strategic logistics facilities to create a balanced, income-generating real estate platform in North America and beyond.