MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Spain’s Mr Zara is buying one acre site in London’s West End for £ 220m

Amancio Ortega ready to take over Jubilee House at 197-213 Oxford Street

Spain’s Amancio Ortega, the co-founder and former chairman of retail giant Inditex, is splashing out on a 1 acre “island site” on London’s Oxford Street for around £220m according to Property Week.

The operation involves Jubilee House at 197-213 Oxford Street for around £165m to which must be added 215-219 Oxford Street next door which he purchased for £55.1m last October. The two buildings were brought to the market together by Irish investor Cosgrave Property Group in March 2010 for between £200m and £210m. But in October the decision was taken to sell them separately.

The sale of Jubilee House is expected to exchange this week. Ortega already owns retail and office properties in London’s West End and the City, as well as assets in New York, Florida, Madrid and Lisbon.

The Spanish retail entrepreneur has a net worth of 31 billion US dollars (£19bn), which makes him the seventh-richest man in the world on the Forbes Rich List 2011. The two buildings’ tenants include Inditex’s international brand Zara, as well as Next, River Island and New Look.

The four retailers account for around 80% of the income of the block. The offices above are let to auctioneer Christie’s, recruitment firm Hays and architect 3D Reid. Ortega stepped down as chairman of Inditex in January this year, but is still said to receive 87% of his income from the publicly traded company.

Inditex is the holding company for retail brands such as Zara, Massimo Dutti, Stradivarius and others. It has 5,000 stores in 77 countries. Ortega started out aged 13 as a delivery boy for a shirt maker in Galicia, Spain. By the age of 27 he had founded his own company Confecciones Goa, which made and sold bathrobes.

In 1975 Ortega opened his first retail store, Zara, and in 1985 he founded holding company Inditex.