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Blackstone has closed on its latest real estate fund, raising $30.4B in capital commitments. The fund is 48% larger than the investment giant's previous real estate fund, which closed in 2019. The new fund is called Blackstone Real Estate Partners X and had an original target of $25B.
Major investors in the fund include the Teachers’ Retirement System of Louisiana, the Arkansas Teacher Retirement System and the Oklahoma Teachers’ Retirement System.
Now is the time to invest worldwide, according to Blackstone, despite the downward pressure on real estate valuations.
“We have made some of our best investments in periods characterized by the market volatility and dislocation we see today,” Blackstone Real Estate Global co-Head Ken Caplan said in a statement.
“Furthermore, sector selection has never been more critical as we witness the bifurcation of performance within real estate,” Caplan said.
The investor has already shifted much of its real estate holdings away from office buildings and malls, with about 80% of its assets now in industrial, apartments, hotels, data centers and labs. U.S. office buildings account for 2% of Blackstone's real estate holdings.
“I do think traditional office is much worse in the U.S. than people think, and I think a lot of firms have not been aggressive enough on their marks,” Joan Solotar, the global head of private wealth solutions at Blackstone, said during a Bloomberg Invest conference in March.
In some cases, the shift away from office has meant a loss for the company. Blackstone sold the 560K SF Griffin Towers in Santa Ana, California, for $82M. It paid $129M for the property in 2014.
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