The recent buyer of a Somers office building to be vacated this year by PepsiCo Inc. is linked to a Mexican company controlled by one of the world”™s wealthiest people.
Carlos Slim Helu, a Mexican telecommunications magnate ranked by Forbes this year as the world”™s second richest billionaire behind Bill Gates, apparently is a new investor in Westchester”™s commercial office market.
- 1 Pepsi Way in Somers. File photo
Forbes in its real-time calculation of Slim”™s net worth listed it at $75.7 billion as of April 15, trailing Microsoft co-founder Gates and ahead of Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett in the business publication”™s rankings of the world”™s top three billionaires. Among his many business holdings and philanthropic interests, the 75-year-old Slim serves as chairman and CEO of America Movil, the largest mobile phone network in the Americas, and Telmex.
Sources familiar with the deal for 1 Pepsi Way have kept silent about the buyer”™s identity and plans for the nine-story, 540,000-square-foot building on a 200-acre campus.
The buyer, 1 P Way LLC, in March paid nearly $87 million for the property, whose sole tenant is the PepsiCo Americas Beverages division, which has its headquarters there. PepsiCo in February announced the bottling division in Somers, formerly Pepsi Bottling Group Inc., will vacate 1 Pepsi Way by early next year and relocate about 900 employees to PepsiCo”™s renovated Purchase headquarters and its office in White Plains.
The previous owner, PSI Investments LLC, an affiliate of Murray Hill Properties in Manhattan, and a group of Brooklyn-based real estate holding companies paid $84 million for the property in 2006. Murray Hill Properties three years ago listed the property for sale through Cushman & Wakefield”™s Metropolitan Area Capital Markets Group.
The new building owner, in deed documents recently recorded at the Westchester County Clerk”™s office, gave an office address in Mexico City that is the headquarters of IDEAL, an infrastructure investment and development company in which the Slim family has a 65 percent controlling interest. The company”™s Spanish name translates as “Impelling Development and Employment in Latin America.”
IDEAL is part of Grupo Carso, a conglomerate of holding companies founded by Slim in 1965. IDEAL and other Slim-owned companies have their headquarters in Mexico City at Plaza Carso, built by Slim and said to be the largest mixed-use development in Latin America.
Slim founded IDEAL in 2005 and capitalized it at $900 million through a spinoff from his banking and financial services company, Grupo Financiero Inbursa. According to its website, IDEAL invests in, manages and develops a range of infrastructure projects, including Mexican toll roads, wastewater treatment plants, hydroelectric plants, multimodal transportation centers and federal penitentiaries.
The company, listed on the Mexican Stock Exchange, said its fundamental objective is “to develop infrastructure in the country to the benefit of society, growing and improving Mexico”™s physical and human capital.”
- Carlos Slim
Slim reportedly began investing in U.S. companies about 15 years ago. In Detroit, Slim late last year bought a largely vacant 10-story office building in another secretive deal, according to the Detroit News, marking his first apparent real estate purchase in that city. The limited liability company that paid $5.7 million for the Detroit building has a Mexico City address that is the headquarters of Slim”™s Grupo Financiero Inbursa.
In January, Slim more than doubled his share holdings in The New York Times Co., where his 17 percent stake reportedly is worth roughly $341 million. He also has invested in New York City”™s high-priced residential and commercial real estate, paying $44 million for a Fifth Avenue mansion in 2010 and $140 million that same year for an 11- story Fifth Avenue office building.
How Slim”™s company plans to use or lease the 1 Pepsi Way property in Somers is not clear. A representative at IDEAL”™s Mexico City office did not respond to a request for comment from the Business Journal.
Somers Town Supervisor Rick Morrissey also not did not respond to requests for comment on whether town officials have discussed the office property”™s future after PepsiCo with the new landlord”™s representatives.
William M. Mooney III, director of the Westchestser County Office of Economic Development, said county officials did meet with Somers town officials and representatives of the owner “to welcome them to Westchester County.” Mooney in an email said the owners “contacted us in order to introduce themselves and to learn how the county may be able to assist them as they move forward with their options to lease and occupy the facility once Pepsi vacates the facility next year.”
Mooney said county officials were not told of “any specific future plans for the facility” but did discuss Industrial Development Agency benefits and other financial incentives that might be available and offered to assist the new owners in working with members of business, real estate and government in the community.
Mooney said the owner’s representative at the meeting was from a real estate company and “the ownership of the new company was not a part of our discussions.”
Attorney Mark Weingarten, who in February represented 1 Pepsi Way”™s previous owner in an easement transfer request before the Westchester County Board of Legislators, told legislators the building”™s then-prospective buyer was aware that PepsiCo might not renew its five-year lease. He said the unidentified buyer planned to continue using the building as office space.
Asked about the new owner at 1 Pepsi Way and the apparent link to Carlos Slim, Weingarten told the Business Journal, “I”™m not authorized to give out any information.” He declined further comment.
