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]