Group

OUR GROUP - HISTORY

During the early 70’s, brothers Joseph and Marco Ashkenazi, always guided by an entrepreneurial spirit and new business opportunities, made their way into the clothing manufacturing industry, joining their efforts to establish JOMARC. Later on, they also got involved in the retail chain store business.

In the 80’s, wanting to diversify their investments, the Ashkenazi brothers went into business with another corporate group in the Colon Free Zone, America’s biggest free zone and the second largest in the world. Their entry was Importadora & Exportadora ROSEN, the first showroom specializing in bags, briefcases, purses and wallets, which was quickly followed by Tempo Internacional, a wholesale clothing showroom that besides stocking their own retail stores in Panama City offered products to other countries in Latin America. Rodeo Import came next, a company focused on overall products for the home. Some years later, Rodeo Sport was established, the largest sporting goods distributor in the region.

Parallel to their Zona Libre expansion, the group got involved in the construction and real estate businesses in 1995 creating warehouse buildings, residences and shopping malls. In partnership with another company, they delved into the tourist market by inaugurating the Colon 2000 Cruise Port, the first of its kind in the city of Colon which began operations in 2002.

This ambitious project was complemented later on with the construction of the Radisson Colon 2000 Hotel & Casino. In 2008, they inaugurated a second port also in Colon 2000, thus creating a permanent home port that has enabled the entry of thousands of tourists into Panama.

Always diversifying, the group has also taken part of other competitive industries. As Panama becomes renowned for its booming banking activity, Grupo Ashkenazi makes an incursion into local banking as partners in Banco Aliado and later Unibank.

In the new century, they made an entry in the reforestation industry with the Rio Piedras estate in Panama’s Atlantic coast and created Inver Forest. This forest development project has 2,800 hectares near Portobelo in Panama’s Colon province, out of which 400 are exclusively dedicated to teak plantations. The estate also offers the added value of being very close to the city and provides a beautiful view to Panama’s Caribbean coastline, reaffirming this land’s large business potential. Actions have also been taken to be part of the energy sector with the Hidrotenencia project, which is already well advanced.

In the year 2010 they began construction for the Mega Mall shopping center in the 24 de diciembre area, to be launched in 2015. It represents one of their most ambitious projects in Panama City. This project joins a long list of high-end residential and commercial buildings constructed in the city.

Following a vision that is ahead of its time, Grupo Ashkenazi will soon impact Panama’s real estate market an ambitious commercial, industrial and residential development project called Panatropolis, located over 850 hectares that neighbor Panama’s Tocumen International Airport and the Corredor Sur highway.

It has been a brotherly bond together with a clear business vision and hard work, that have made Grupo Ashkenazi the commercial giant that it is today.