Blackstone quick to flip EOP assets

Five months after purchasing Equity Office Properties’ 102 million-square-foot portfolio–the biggest collection of office buildings in the country–Blackstone Group has already sold roughly half of it. The properties are spread throughout 24 markets nationwide. In selling 261 buildings of the 543 EOP buildings, Blackstone has made back over 70 percent of the deal’s record $39 billion price tag. Some of Blackstone’s buyers, meanwhile, have turned around and resold the ex-EOP properties. Morgan Stanley, for example, paid Blackstone $2.7 billion for 12 former EOP office buildings in San Francisco, and has since sold half its interest in one of them for $720 million. more [WSJ]