San Juan, Puerto Rico
Title in San Juan is public in the Puerto Rico Property Registry at $5–$10 a parcel online, but the municipal cadastre that names taxpayers could not be reached; the filings that do open show listed banks owning Hato Rey, mainland REITs holding the mall and the Caribe Hilton, and government holding the forts, port and Convention Center district.
8 buildings · 8 with an owner established · 31 sources · 6 tier A · 2 tier B · prepared 2026-10-22
Can you find out who owns it?
Puerto Rico registers title in the Registro de la Propiedad, part of the Department of Justice. Its law says the Registry 'es público para quienes tengan interés en conocer el estado jurídico' of a property, and it shows the owner's name, the transactions recorded and the liens. Since March 2016 it has been searchable online through the Karibe system, which needs an account and charges $5 a parcel for a plain sheet ('hoja simple') or $10 to view the inscription folios. A certification costs $15. Property tax is assessed separately by CRIM on 1957-based values; its Catastro Digital parcel viewer would not open for this research, and no bulk owner file is published.
Is ownership public?Public, but one paid search at a time
Cost of one title search$5.00 per finca to view the 'hoja simple', $10.00 per finca to view the inscription folios, on Karibe (Reglamento 8714, Art. 6.1); $15 per certification, $25 per finca for a negative certification (Ley 91-1970, Art. 1, Núm. 3)
Bulk ownership dataNone published
Sale pricesNo transaction data published
1
The marquee buildings
The towers that set the tone of the core, and who holds them. A price is the price a document states, on the date it states — not an estimate of what the building is worth now.
| Building | Use | Owner | Owner type | Last price paid |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Popular Center 209 Muñoz Rivera Ave, Hato Rey |
Office | Popular, Inc. (Banco Popular de Puerto Rico) Popular's 2025 10-K, Item 2, lists among 'the principal properties owned by Popular': 'Popular Center, the twenty-story Popular and BPPR headquarters building, located at 209 Muñoz Rivera Avenue, Hato Rey', plus Popular Center North (three stories, same block) and the Popular Street parking and office building. The same list puts five more owned buildings inside San Juan: the Cupey Center Complex and El Señorial Center in Río Piedras, a twelve-story Old San Juan Building, and Ponce de León 167 and Muñoz Rivera 200 in Hato Rey. No price or acquisition date is given. |
Public company | —A |
| First Federal Building (First BanCorp headquarters) 1519 Ponce de León Ave, Santurce |
Office | First BanCorp Approximately 51% of the building (10-K) First BanCorp's 2025 10-K, Item 2: 'Headquarters – Located at First Federal Building, 1519 Ponce de León Avenue, San Juan, Puerto Rico. Approximately 51% of this 16-story office building is owned by the Corporation.' Who owns the other 49% is not stated in the filing and was not established. The bank also owns its Service Center at 1130 Muñoz Rivera Ave (over 1,000 employees) and a three-story Consumer Lending Center at 876 Muñoz Rivera Ave, both in San Juan. |
Public company | —A |
| Oriental Center (OFG Bancorp headquarters) 254 Muñoz Rivera Ave, Hato Rey |
Office | OFG Bancorp OFG's 2025 10-K, Item 2: 'At December 31, 2025, OFG owns a fifteen-story office building located at 254 Muñoz Rivera Avenue, San Juan, Puerto Rico, known as "Oriental Center", where its executive offices are located.' OFG's units occupy about 99% of the office floors and about 1% is leased to outside tenants. The bank also owns three branch premises and leases thirty-nine in Puerto Rico. |
Public company | —A |
| Caribe Hilton 1 San Gerónimo St, Puerta de Tierra 652 rooms (Park 10-K) |
Hotel | Park Hotels & Resorts 100%, fee simple; certain portions of land or facilities subject to lease (10-K) Park's 2025 10-K lists 'Caribe Hilton' under Puerto Rico as FS(2), 100%, 652 rooms: 'FS' is fee simple, and note 2 says 'certain portions of land or facilities are subject to lease'. Schedule III carries it at $184M at 31 Dec 2025 ($41M land, $111M buildings, $32M FF&E), built 1949, with a date acquired of 10/24/2007. PRIDCO's own history says the Commonwealth's industrial development company built the hotel for $7M, opened it on 9 Dec 1949, leased it to Hilton, and that 'Hilton International bought the property in 1998'; ownership passed to Park at the January 2017 spin-off (PRIDCO, s13). |
REIT | —B |
| The Mall of San Juan 1000 The Mall of San Juan Blvd 674,733 sq ft GLA (Simon 10-K) |
Retail | Simon Property Group 100.0%, fee; 'substantially all the economic benefit … due to a preference or advance' (10-K note 10) Simon's 2025 10-K property table: 'Mall of San Juan, The | PR | San Juan | Fee | 100.0% (10) | Acquired 2020 | 94.5% | 674,733', anchors H&M, Zara, Pottery Barn, Urban Outfitters and Anthropologie. Note 10: 'We receive substantially all the economic benefit of the property due to a preference or advance.' Taubman developed the mall, which opened 26 Mar 2015. Wikipedia says Simon 'acquired former original developer Taubman Centers in November 2025', and that the mall's acquisition by Simon was announced on 16 Dec 2025. The address is from Wikipedia (s27). No price is stated for this asset. |
REIT | —B |
| Plaza Las Américas Hato Rey, San Juan 1,900,000 sq ft (Wikipedia) |
Retail | Plaza Las Américas, Inc. (Empresas Fonalledas, Inc.) Wikipedia's infobox names the owner 'Plaza Las Américas, Inc' and 'Empresas Fonalledas, Inc.', with 1,900,000 sq ft; the article says the centre opened on 12 Sep 1968 with 76 stores in 747,000 sq ft on a 55-acre site, that later expansions used a 75-acre site, and that 'Empresas Fonalledas owners of Plaza las Américas' also built Plaza del Caribe in Ponce. It is a family company, so no SEC filing exists, and the Registro entry was not bought. The page gives no street address, so only the barrio is shown. |
Family / private | —A |
| Federico Degetau Federal Building and Clemente Ruiz-Nazario U.S. Courthouse 150 Carlos E. Chardón St, Hato Rey 408,202 rentable sq ft (IOLP) |
Civic | United States of America (General Services Administration) GSA's IOLP buildings file of 16 Oct 2026, location PR0017, 'DEGETAU FB & RUIZ-NAZARIO CTHS', OWNED, 150 Carlos E Chardon Street, Hato Rey, 408,202.38 rentable sq ft, built 1974, active. On the same block GSA owns the Degetau Child Care Center (PR0023, 14,682 sq ft, 2001) and 140 Carlos Chardón (PR0025, 145,834 sq ft, 2020); in Old San Juan it owns the José V. Toledo Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse (PR0003, 102,962 sq ft, 1914). GSA's other owned Puerto Rico buildings are at Fort Buchanan, which is in Guaynabo, not San Juan. |
Government | —A |
| Puerto Rico Convention Center 100 Bulevar Saint John, Isla Grande (Santurce) 600,000 sq ft total; 152,700 sq ft of exhibit space (Wikipedia) |
Civic | Puerto Rico Convention Center District Authority Wikipedia: a convention center in Isla Grande 'owned by the Puerto Rico Convention Center District Authority, a government agency of Puerto Rico, and managed by ASM Global'. The Authority also runs the José Miguel Agrelot Coliseum (the 'Choliseo'), the Antiguo Casino de Puerto Rico in Old San Juan, and 'the 113-acre district on which the Convention Center and the attached Sheraton hotel are located'. The center opened on 18 Nov 2005. Who owns the Sheraton hotel building was not established. |
Government | —A |
2
The core land
The most valuable ground in the city, and what the public record says about it.
Puerto Rico taxes real property on a 1957 base: according to the oversight board's April 2024 letter, as reported, rates 'are applied to the property's value as it was hypothetically appraised back in 1957'. San Juan's roll totals are therefore far below market value and are not comparable with a US mainland roll. Figures come from the Municipality of San Juan's FY2024–25 budget (s8), Park's 10-K (s12) and the AAFAF reprint (s7).
Valuation of property in San Juan (tasación, real + personal)$30,717,121,497
'Valor de Tasación de la Propiedad' at 30 June 2023, used to compute San Juan's 10% legal debt margin ($3.07B), 'según lo calculado y proporcionado por AAFAF'. Municipal FY2024–25 budget, s8.
CRIM's estimate of basic property tax to San Juan, FY2025$130M
'El estimado remitido por el CRIM al Municipio asciende a $130 millones', down $3.3M (−3%) on FY2024. Municipal budget, s8.
Real-property tax rate, San Juan FY2024–2510.33%
Basic 6.00% + redemption fund 1.03% + special additional 3.50%, less a 0.20% discount (personal property 8.33%). Ordinance 28, Serie 2001-02, as tabled in the municipal budget, s8.
A land benchmark: Caribe Hilton at book cost$184M (land $41M)
Gross carrying amount at 31 Dec 2025 for a 652-room fee-simple resort on the Puerta de Tierra shore; land carried at $41M. This is cost, not a valuation. Park 10-K Schedule III, s12.
Island-wide cadastre backlog56,000+ properties without identified ownership; 190k new properties and 510k improvements unvalidated
Board letter of 10 July 2026 approving a $2M pilot to identify owners of 'more than 56,000 properties' (s6). Board's 2024 fiscal-plan letter on a 'virtual validation backlog of 190k new properties and 510k home improvements missing from the property registry' (s7). Island-wide figures, not San Juan alone.
3
Who owns the town
At this scale the significant owner is rarely a trust or a fund: it is one or two local holding companies, a family in its second or third generation, and often the land around the town rather than the buildings in it.
Much of San Juan's landmark ground is public: the federal government (the forts and the federal buildings), Commonwealth public corporations (the Convention Center district, the port and Isla Grande airport) and the Municipality itself. Fort Buchanan, the Army post often called San Juan's, stands in Guaynabo and is not counted. The Luis Muñoz Marín airport and Isla Verde's hotels are in Carolina and are not counted either. No private landowner total could be computed, because the cadastre was unreachable.
| Name | Type | Holdings |
|---|---|---|
| United States of America (National Park Service; GSA) The San Juan National Historic Site in Old San Juan is NPS-managed and covers the fortification system, including San Felipe del Morro and San Cristóbal (Wikipedia, s20; NPS park page, s21). GSA IOLP (s16) lists the Degetau Federal Building and Courthouse, the Degetau Child Care Center and 140 Carlos Chardón in Hato Rey, and the Toledo Federal Building and Courthouse in Old San Juan, all as OWNED. |
Government | 75.13 acres (San Juan NHS); 4 GSA-owned buildings, ~671,700 rentable sq ftB |
| Puerto Rico Convention Center District Authority Owns the Convention Center and the José Miguel Agrelot Coliseum ('Choliseo', managed by ASM Global, s19), and operates the Antiguo Casino. Wikipedia gives the owner of Distrito T-Mobile, a 476,000 sq ft entertainment complex in the district developed by PRISA Group, as 'Government of Puerto Rico' (s18). |
Government | 113-acre districtA |
| Puerto Rico Ports Authority Wikipedia: the cruise port 'is owned by the Puerto Rico Ports Authority and managed by Global Ports Holding under a public–private partnership lasting for 30 years, beginning in 2024' (s22). Fernando Luis Ribas Dominicci (Isla Grande) Airport, owner Puerto Rico Ports Authority, covers 102 acres (s23). |
Government | Port of San Juan; Isla Grande airport (102 acres)A |
| Municipio Autónomo de San Juan The FY2024–25 budget describes the sports complex as 'las setenta y cinco (75) cuerdas que comprenden este inmueble municipal', holding the Roberto Clemente coliseum, Hiram Bithorn Stadium, Coliseíto Pedrín Zorrilla and the Tito Puente amphitheatre. It also lists the Río Piedras and Santurce market plazas, Centro Comercial Rafael Hernández and the Covadonga intermodal terminal as rent-producing municipal property. Wikipedia: Hiram Bithorn is 'owned and operated by the municipal government of San Juan' (s28). |
Government | 75 cuerdas (Complejo Deportivo), plus market plazas and garagesA |
| Puerto Rico Industrial Development Company (PRIDCO) PRIDCO's account of its own role in Puerto Rico's best-known hotel site. Its current San Juan holdings were not enumerated: the PRIDCO map services on sige.pr.gov return no layers, and its public listing shows only properties offered for rent or sale. |
Government | Built the Caribe Hilton (1949); sold to Hilton International in 1998A |
5
Who builds the houses
New-home building in this market: the volume, and the firms behind it. Ownership of a builder matters as much as its volume — a private-equity platform and a family firm behave differently.
There is no new-home league table for Puerto Rico. The US Census Bureau's county building-permit files (www2.census.gov/econ/bps) carry no Puerto Rico rows, and the Census API refused this research's requests. In San Juan, new rental housing now comes mostly from public and tax-credit finance: CDBG-DR recovery money, Low-Income Housing Tax Credits allocated by the Autoridad para el Financiamiento de la Vivienda, and the Administración de Vivienda Pública (AVP). In those deals the developer, the builder and the public promoter are separate parties. The rows below are what an opened source names for a dated San Juan project. They are not a ranking.
| Name | Type | Units in a named San Juan project |
|---|---|---|
| Pennrose LLC and Ponce De León Developer, LLC Developers of a $139.6M affordable building for low- and moderate-income older adults on about 1.67 acres between Ponce de León Ave, Fernández Juncos Ave and Calle Mayol: 218 one-bedroom and 4 two-bedroom units. Financing is $80.6M CDBG-DR, $44.6M LIHTC equity, a $10M AVP capital-funds loan, $2M from the FHLB of New York and $2.5M in deferred developer fees from Pennrose and AVP. Construction is scheduled from Oct 2026 to Nov 2029. Announced 28 Sep 2026. |
Private company | 222 apartments (Ponce de León #55, Santurce)A |
| F&R Construction Group, Inc. Named as the builder ('construido por') of the same project. A contractor is not the owner. |
Private company | 222 apartments (builder, Ponce de León #55)A |
| Administración de Vivienda Pública (AVP) The Puerto Rico Public Housing Administration promotes the project and lends $10M of capital funds. AVP's San Juan public-housing stock could not be counted: HUD's data portal (huduser.gov) returned an empty challenge response. |
Government | Promoter of the 222-unit Ponce de León #55A |
6
Commercial landlords
The commercial side, counted separately from housing: who holds the office, retail and industrial floor area.
San Juan's commercial owners are the island's own listed banks, which own their Hato Rey and Santurce headquarters; two mainland REITs (Simon for retail, Park for hotels); and one family company that owns the island's largest mall. SITE Centers' Puerto Rico spin-off, Retail Value Inc., sold its remaining Puerto Rico properties in August 2021 (s29). Figures are from each owner's filing or, for private owners, Wikipedia. They are counted separately from housing.
| Name | Type | San Juan holdings |
|---|---|---|
| Plaza Las Américas, Inc. (Empresas Fonalledas, Inc.) Owner named in the Wikipedia infobox. The article says the company also built Plaza del Caribe in Ponce and acquired the Arecibo Mall, both outside San Juan. |
Family / private | 1,900,000 sq ft (Plaza Las Américas)A |
| Simon Property Group Fee, 100% (economic interest via preference or advance). Simon also owns Plaza Carolina (1,154,214 sq ft), which its 10-K lists as 'Carolina (San Juan)' but which stands in the municipality of Carolina, and Puerto Rico Premium Outlets in Barceloneta. Neither is in San Juan. |
REIT | 674,733 sq ft GLA (The Mall of San Juan)A |
| Popular, Inc. The 10-K lists Popular Center (20 floors), Popular Center North, the Popular Street Building, the Cupey Center Complex, the Old San Juan Building (12 floors), El Señorial Center, Ponce de León 167 and Muñoz Rivera 200, all in San Juan. Two more, in Guaynabo, are excluded. Premises and equipment, group-wide, net $685.8M at 31 Dec 2025. |
Public company | 8 principal owned buildings in San Juan; 67 of 162 BPPR branches ownedA |
| First BanCorp Owned branches and centres span Puerto Rico, Florida, the USVI and the BVI. The bank leases 88 premises. |
Public company | 3 principal San Juan buildings (51% of HQ); 18 branches and 10 office centres ownedA |
| Park Hotels & Resorts Fee simple, 100%. Park's only Puerto Rico hotel. |
REIT | 652 rooms; $184M gross book value (Caribe Hilton)A |
| OFG Bancorp It also owns three branch premises in Puerto Rico and two in the USVI. |
Public company | Oriental Center, 15 floorsA |
?
Looked for and not found
Claims this page would have made if a source could be opened. They are left out rather than guessed.
- Whether CRIM's Catastro Digital shows the owner's name for a parcel. The Planning Board's MIPR viewer links to it ('Link a Parcela en el CRIM') by cadastre number, but the host reset every connection.
- CRIM's roll value for San Juan's single most valuable parcel and a principal-taxpayer table. Both sit in CRIM's and the Municipality's audited reports, which could not be opened (CRIM host unreachable; the FY2019 CAFR copy behind Akamai).
- Plaza Las Américas ownership rests on Wikipedia. No Registro entry was bought, and the family company files nothing with the SEC.
- Condado Vanderbilt Hotel (1055 Ashford Ave, 217 rooms + 100 suites): Wikipedia's infobox gives 'Paulson & Co. (majority owner), International Hospitality Enterprises'. That was not confirmed from a filing or registry, so it is not shown as a marquee owner.
- The other 49% of the First Federal Building, which First BanCorp's 10-K does not name.
- Owner of the Sheraton Puerto Rico hotel attached to the Convention Center, and of the Distrito T-Mobile buildings, beyond Wikipedia's 'Government of Puerto Rico'.
- Hotels often described as San Juan's (El San Juan, the Isla Verde strip) stand in Carolina and were left out; Fort Buchanan is in Guaynabo.
- Act 60 decree holders' real-estate purchases: no official register links decrees to properties, so no Act 60 ownership claim is made.
- The PR Ports Authority's maritime-ports PDF on docs.pr.gov (Puertos Maritimos.pdf) was opened but carries injected gambling spam in its text, so it is not cited.
- New-home output for San Juan: no Census permit series covers Puerto Rico, and one widely reported figure (about 700 homes built island-wide in 2024, from the builders' association) appeared only in metro.pr coverage, which was not fetched.
§
Sources
- Ley del Registro de la Propiedad Inmobiliaria (Ley Núm. 210 de 8 de diciembre de 2015, según enmendada), Arts. 2–3 — Oficina de Gerencia y Presupuesto, Biblioteca Virtual (compilation rev. 1 Oct 2026) · openA
- Reglamento General para la Aplicación de la Ley Núm. 209-2015 (Reglamento Núm. 8714, 8 Mar 2016), Art. 6.1 — Departamento de Justicia de Puerto Rico · openA
- Ley del Arancel de los Derechos que se han de Pagar por las Operaciones en el Registro de la Propiedad (Ley Núm. 91 de 30 de agosto de 1970, según enmendada) — Oficina de Gerencia y Presupuesto, Biblioteca Virtual · openA
- Registro Inmobiliario Digital de Puerto Rico (Registro de la Propiedad) — Departamento de Justicia de Puerto Rico · openA
- CRIM portal: Servicios; Certificación Negativa sin propiedades — Centro de Recaudación de Ingresos Municipales (CRIM) · openA
- Fiscal board greenlights scaled-down pilot for CRIM's cadaster update — The San Juan Daily Star · openA
- Fiscal board stresses need for property tax system overhaul to boost towns' revenues (reprinted from The San Juan Daily Star) — Puerto Rico Fiscal Agency and Financial Advisory Authority (AAFAF), 'AAFAF in the News' · openA
- Presupuesto 2024-2025, Municipio Autónomo de San Juan (Resolución Núm. 105, Serie 2023-2024) — Oficina de Gerencia y Presupuesto, Presupuestos Municipales · openA
- Popular, Inc. Form 10-K for 2025, Item 2 Properties — Popular, Inc. via SEC EDGAR · openA
- First BanCorp Form 10-K for 2025, Item 2 Properties — First BanCorp via SEC EDGAR · openA
- OFG Bancorp Form 10-K for 2025, Item 2 Properties — OFG Bancorp via SEC EDGAR · openA
- Park Hotels & Resorts Form 10-K for 2025: Item 2 hotel table and Schedule III — Park Hotels & Resorts Inc. via SEC EDGAR · openA
- The Caribe Hilton Hotel: More than 7 decades of hospitality growth and cultural celebrations — Puerto Rico Industrial Development Company (PRIDCO) · openA
- Simon Property Group Form 10-K for 2025, U.S. property table — Simon Property Group, Inc. via SEC EDGAR · openA
- Plaza Las Américas (Puerto Rico) — Wikipedia · openA
- Inventory of Owned and Leased Properties (IOLP): 2026-10-16 buildings file — U.S. General Services Administration via catalog.data.gov · openA
- Puerto Rico Convention Center — Wikipedia · openA
- Distrito T-Mobile — Wikipedia · openA
- Coliseo de Puerto Rico José Miguel Agrelot — Wikipedia · openA
- San Juan National Historic Site — Wikipedia · openA
- San Juan National Historic Site (park home page) — U.S. National Park Service · openA
- Port of San Juan — Wikipedia · openA
- Fernando Luis Ribas Dominicci Airport — Wikipedia · openA
- Condado Vanderbilt Hotel — Wikipedia · openA
- Caribe Hilton — Wikipedia · openA
- Construirán complejo de vivienda asequible para adultos mayores en Santurce — El Nuevo Día · openA
- The Mall of San Juan — Wikipedia · openA
- Hiram Bithorn Stadium — Wikipedia · openA
- Retail Value Inc. Form 10-K for 2021 — Retail Value Inc. via SEC EDGAR · openA
- Karibe (Registro Inmobiliario Digital) sign-in page — Departamento de Justicia de Puerto Rico · registrationA
- CRIM Catastro Digital (parcel viewer) — Centro de Recaudación de Ingresos Municipales (CRIM) · blockedC