The Kensington apartment tower in Boston's Theater District. Photo by James Sanna | Banker & Tradesman Staff

With the possibility of rent control in Massachusetts sidelined for the immediate future, a Boston apartment high-rise sold for $234 million to a Miami-based investor.

Ponte Gadea USA acquired the Kensington from its original developer, Boston-based Kensington Investment Management. The transaction is the largest multifamily investment sale of the year in Boston and equates to $614,173 per unit.

The 27-story, 488,000-square-foot tower at 659 Washington St. was completed in 2013 and contains 381 apartments.

Ponte Gadea USA is the U.S. arm of the family office of Spanish billionaire Amancio Ortega, founder of the Zara clothing chain. The company has been acquiring trophy residential towers in major U.S. metros and office buildings in Canada. It made its first U.S. multifamily investment in 2022, buying a 500-unit tower in New York for approximately $500 million.

Kensington Investment Management is a family office founded in 1983 by the late Alan Lewis that owns properties in the Boston area and Utah. The company partnered with National Development on the Theater District project.

Multifamily investment sales activity has declined sharply in 2026 across Massachusetts as potential buyers submitted lower-than-expected bids and awaited the outcome of a potential statewide rent control policy.

The last major apartment trade in Boston was the $55 million sale of the Lofts at Atlantic Wharf in March. In Cambridge, the Twenty20 tower sold in February for $218 million.

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court’s invalidation of a statewide ballot question on rent control immediately revived investment deal-making activity, Bisnow reported.