Competition heats up for control of 23M-sf national industrial portfolio

Park Avenue-based Blackstone Group and a Morgan Stanley property fund are seeking control of a 23 million-square-foot industrial real estate portfolio, the Wall Street Journal reported. The portfolio includes a total of 95 properties in California, Arizona, Texas and other states.

The portfolio, known as CalWest and owned by Walton Street Capital, has an anticipated default in June. For the past two years, the Journal reported, Blackstone has collected pieces of CalWest’s junior debt in an effort to take over.

CalWest has 85 percent occupancy and is worth about $1.2 billion, according to the Journal.

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Walton Street Capital was co-owner of the Midtown Paramount Hotel, which hit the auction block last year.

According to the Journal, there’s a trend of some investors moving toward industrial properties, whose values have risen slowly. [WSJ]