The Blackstone Group reportedly picked up a portfolio of 124 properties from Cabot Properties across the United States and Europe for $2.8 billion.
The properties were sold in two deals, according to Bloomberg. One deal handed the firm 102 U.S. properties and the other 22 properties in the United Kingdom, Germany and the Netherlands. All told, the properties encompass 17.4 million square feet.
The Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust was responsible for the purchase of the American properties, while the firm’s Core+ business purchased the properties in Europe.
The investment giant said in October it had marked a record-shattering third quarter — the best in its history — led by real estate investments, which grew to $230 billion, the highest percentage increase among Blackstone’s segments.
The industrial real estate market is also coming off of a blockbuster third quarter, featuring 159 million square feet of net absorption, the highest quarterly mark since 2008 according to Transwestern.
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Real estate powers Blackstone’s best quarter ever
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Blackstone nears deal for massive industrial portfolio in India
Industrial vacancy rates across the country fell in the third quarter to 4.7 percent. Industrial strongholds like California’s Inland Empire and New Jersey’s Orange County, recorded vacancy rates closer to 3 percent. Industrial asking rents posted a quarterly high of $7.11 per square foot.
Blackstone’s ongoing industrial play has earned the firm several notable deals across the hot market.
The firm’s private REIT agreed to acquire WPT Industrial Real Estate Trust in August in an all-cash deal valued at $3.1 billion. WPT owned about 110 commercial properties in the country, including warehouses and distribution centers near Chicago, Houston and Atlanta.
This isn’t the first time Blackstone has looked overseas to fulfill its industrial appetite. In April, the firm was reportedly nearing a deal to pay $720 million for a portfolio of industrial and development sites in India being sold by Warburg Pincus LLC and Embassy Group. The portfolio spanned 3.5 million square feet of existing warehouse space with room for another 18 million.
Blackstone ultimately closed on a deal the following month.
[Bloomberg] — Holden Walter-Warner