Blackstone Group is diving back into the multifamily market after agreeing to buy 80 apartment buildings from an arm of General Electric for $2.7 billion, Bloomberg News reported, citing an unnamed source.
The GE Capital Unit of General Electric sold the U.S. properties to the New York-based private-equity manager with the goal of reducing its finance division. Blackstone largely picks up single-family homes to rent, among the more than 30,000 homes it acquired after the foreclosure crisis, Bloomberg said.
Blackstone had been negotiating to buy either a portion or all of apartment landlord Archstone in 2011, as previously reported. Equity Residential and AvalonBay Communities later bought Archstone from Lehman Brothers Holdings.
On the hotel front, Blackstone wants to sell the $4.5 billion, California-based La Quinta chain and is preparing the Hilton chain for an initial public offering, as previously reported. Blackstone is boosting wagers on apartments while it sells off its holdings in retail, offices and hotels, the publication said. [Bloomberg News] – Mark Maurer