Blackstone Wins Stake in Signature CRE Loans for $1.2 Billion

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation on Thursday awarded a stake in Signature Bank’s $17 billion commercial real estate loan pool to two Blackstone affiliates.

Blackstone Real Estate Debt Strategies and BREIT partnered with Rialto Capital and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board on the deal.

The Blackstone team bid $1.2 billion for a 20 percent stake in a joint venture that holds the failed bank’s commercial real estate debt, according to an FDIC press release. The FDIC retained an 80 percent interest in the venture and provided financing equal to 50 percent of the venture’s value, according to the winning bidders.

The commercial real estate loan book holds 2,600 mortgages on retail, market-rate multifamily and office properties. The loans are predominantly performing and 90 percent are fixed-rate, according to Blackstone and its partners.

Blackstone will be the lead asset manager on the debt and Rialto will service the loans. A team at Newmark led by Doug Harmon and Adam Spies brokered the deal. JLL advised the Blackstone team.

The FDIC is selling a total of about $33 billion in Signature loans in a process closely watched by the industry.

The award does not include Signature’s rent-stabilized or rent-controlled loans, which total $15 billion.