Qatar Investment Authority is now the ninth-largest commercial property owner in New York city, Doha News reported on Sunday.
QIA's standing was revealed in CoStar's recent ranking of New York's largest commercial owners.
The investment authority now holds some 10.69 million square feet of real estate in New York, a 145 percent increase from March of last year.
Crain’s New York reported that this increase is mostly due to QIA’s $622 million investment in the company that owns the Empire State Building.
QIA made the purchase in August, gaining a 9.9 percent stake in the Empire State Realty Trust.
The authority also owns a great deal of real estate in London and Qatari officials have recently pledged to invest £5 billion in the UK’s economy over the next three to five years.
QIA's fund is believed to manage upward of $250 billion in assets. In the UK alone, it owns the Shard, the Olympic village, and Canary Wharf among many other properties.
Expanding in the U.S.
"Internationally, New York real estate is a safe place to park assets ... and wealth funds are sometimes willing to pay more for assets than real estate fund managers. They're buying assets for the long term—like 20 to 30 years," said Michael Maduell, President of the Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute, a research outfit based in Las Vegas.
QIA set up shop in Manhattan at the start of 2015's fourth quarter.
"Since then, Real Capital Analytics estimates that the fund has been involved in $3.8 billion in New York City property acquisition deals and $6.5 billion in U.S. acquisition deals overall."