Spanish billionaire Amancio Ortega is buying Sabadell Financial Center in Brickell for about $275 million.
Ponte Gadea, Ortega’s real estate investment firm, plans to purchase the 30-story office tower at 1111 Brickell Avenue from New York-based KKR and Orlando-based Parkway. Green Street, a real estate research and intelligence firm, and the Promote first reported the deal. The Real Deal independently confirmed with a source that the sale is pending for about $275 million.
If the deal closes, it would mark the biggest office sale so far this year in South Florida.
Kendall-based MDM Group completed the 524,000-square-foot Sabadell Financial Center on a 1.8-acre lot in 2000, along with the adjacent 296-key JW Marriott Miami, according to records.
Chris Lee and Sean Kelly of CBRE have been marketing the tower. Lee didn’t return a request for comment, and Kelly declined to comment.
KKR and Parkway bought Sabadell for $248.5 million in 2018, records show.
KKR, an investment firm with $81 billion of assets under management at the end of the first quarter, is led by Joseph Bae and Scott Nuttall, according to its website. Parkway, which has a portfolio of more than 20 million square feet mostly in the Sun Belt, is led by James Heistand.
Forbes pegs Ortega’s net worth at $118.2 billion, making him the 12th richest person worldwide. He is the founder of Zara and Bershka clothing retailers. Ortega founded these and other stores through his Inditex firm.
In South Florida, Ortega has been steadily amassing properties. Last month, Ponte Gadea paid $165 million for the 44-story, 259-unit Veneto Las Olas apartment tower at 201 South Federal Highway in downtown Fort Lauderdale. In 2023, the firm bought the 312,000-square-foot cold storage warehouse at 3995 West 108th Street in Hialeah for $113 million.
Ponte Gadea also owns the 55-story Southeast Financial Center office tower at 200 South Biscayne Boulevard in downtown Miami, purchasing it for $500 million in 2016. Its other holdings include Epic Hotel at Epic Hotel & Residences at 200 Biscayne Boulevard Way in downtown Miami, and the 16-story office building at 2701 South Le Jeune Road in Coral Gables.
Miami’s financial district has consistently scored South Florida’s top office sales in recent years. In the most recent sale, billionaire hedge funder Paul Singer’s Elliott Investment Management and Boca Raton-based Morning Calm Management paid $443 million for the 33-story 701 Brickell tower in October.
Brickell also was the epicenter of the influx of out-of-state companies to South Florida during the pandemic. Billionaire hedge funder Ken Griffin moved his Citadel and Citadel Securities from Chicago to Brickell in 2022, where he is leasing offices at 830 Brickell and plans a headquarters tower on a bayfront site.
Monarch Alternative Capital and Tourmaline Capital Partners paid $250 million for 801 Brickell in 2023, and an entity tied to Griffin paid $286.5 million for 1221 Brickell Avenue in 2022.
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