OC portfolio with 1.1M sf part of Blackstone acquisition

$7.6B deal for PS Business Parks includes offices, industrial parks

Blackstone's Stephen Schwarzman with 6700 8th Street, 22642 Lambert Street and 23512 Commerce Center (Getty, PS Business Parks, LoopNet)
Blackstone's Stephen Schwarzman with 6700 8th Street, 22642 Lambert Street and 23512 Commerce Center (Getty, PS Business Parks, LoopNet)

Private equity giant Blackstone has picked up 1.1 million square feet of office, industrial and retail space in Orange County.

The New York-based investor acquired the real estate as part of its $7.6 billion acquisition completed last month of Glendale-based PS Business Parks, the Orange County Business Journal reported.

The all-cash deal by affiliates of Blackstone Real Estate snagged 96 properties from the PSB real estate investment trust, including 57 in California, and three major properties in OC.

They include a 513,000-square-foot business park in Laguna Hills, a 297,000-square-foot business park in Lake Forest, and 317,000 square feet of industrial space in Buena Park.

Blackstone’s purchase of PS Business Parks, announced in April and completed in late July, adds 27 million square feet to its portfolio. Much of its OC assets will be operated by Link Logistics Real Estate, which Blackstone established in 2019 to manage its logistics properties.

New assets include The Row, a 513,000-square-foot business park at 23512 Commerce Center in Laguna Hills. Tenants include Sit ‘n Sleep, Lamps Plus, Lakeshore Learning, Big Air Trampoline and a 33,792-square-foot building occupied by Jerome’s Furniture.

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Blackstone also picked up Canada Business Center, a 297,000-square-foot business park with 16 commercial buildings at 22642 Lambert Street in Lake Forest.

And finally, the acquisition includes the 317,000-square-foot Buena Park Industrial Center at 6700 8th Street in Buena Park.

The PS Business Parks deal, at $187.50 a share, comes with around 2.2 million square feet of space in the Los Angeles market, including a 540,000-square-foot industrial park in Santa Fe Springs, a 400,000-square-foot industrial park in Cerritos and a 146,000-square-foot business park in Culver City.

PS Business Parks placed a roughly $120 million gross carrying price on its OC holdings in its last annual report, according to the Business Journal. The local assets would likely trade for more than twice that amount, on an allocated basis, based on a reading of documents pertaining to the portfolio sale.

— Dana Bartholomew

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