North Miami Beach-based Equity One agreed to sell 36 shopping centers in the Southeast for $473.1 million to a Blackstone Group investment fund, Bloomberg News reported. The shopping centers total 3.9 million square feet and are mostly anchored by supermarkets, including 20 that boast a Publix Super Markets outlet. The portfolio was 91 percent occupied, according to Equity One, generating about $35.4 million in the last fiscal year. [more]

Banks and private equity firms are eagerly throwing their hats in the ring for the approximately $9.5 billion U.S. real estate portfolio on offer from Anglo Irish Bank, the Wall Street Journal reported. The largest single commercial property loan sale since the start of the recession, complete with a number of troubled loans, the portfolio has attracted much attention from investors in distressed property.
By the deadline yesterday, the Blackstone Group, Lone Star Funds, LNR Property, TPG Capital, Colony Capital, Area Property Partners, Starwood Capital Group, Five Mile Capital Partners and the CIM Group had all submitted or were intending to sumbit bids for at least some portion of the portfolio, sources said. The portfolio has also attracted the interest of banks, including Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America, given that there are three portfolios of loans that are performing and expected to mostly stay that way through maturity, the Journal said. [more]

Miami Lakes-based BankUnited is on the verge of a major transaction, CEO John Kanas told members of the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce. Kanas joined New York private equity firms to set up BankUnited in May, on the ruins of BankUnited FSB, which was closed and auctioned off by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Kanas said it had $921 million in equity as of June 30 and could draw on more capital from the consortium of private equity firms that backed its formation. They include WL Ross & Company, the investment firm led by the vulture investor Wilbur Ross, the Carlyle Group, the Blackstone Group, Centerbridge Partners, the LeFrak Organization, the Wellcome Trust, Greenaap Investments and East Rock Endowment Fund. Kanas said he expects to strike a deal within the next week. [SFBJ]