Blackstone Picks Up 17 Chicagoland Buildings in GE Deal
The private equity firm leading the most recent purchase of the Willis Tower is making moves in the 'burbs as well. The New York-based Blackstone Group is teaming up with Wells Fargo to buy most of GE Capital Real Estate's assets. The deal is valued at $23B and includes $3.3B in US real estate—including 17 Chicagoland buildings that together have about 4.2M SF, Crains reports. Blackstone paid about $1.3B for Chicago’s Willis Tower, the second-tallest building in the US, earlier this year, and it purchased Schaumburg's Streets of Woodfield shopping mall for $168.5M. Blackstone is also known locally for purchasing Sam Zell's Equity Office Properties Trust in 2007 for $39B. GE Capital Real Estate's local holdings include a number of office buildings in Westchester, DeerField, Oak Brook, Oakbrook Terrace and Rosemont. Blackstone has been attracted to "core-plus" properties lately. [Crain’s]
