Blackstone Sells $3.1B Portfolio to Prologis

Industrial property. Image by valtron84/iStockphoto.com

Prologis has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire 14 million square feet of industrial assets from real estate funds affiliated with Blackstone for $3.1 billion, in an all-cash transaction, as first reported by The Wall Street Journal. The transaction is expected to close by the end of the second quarter.

The properties are in major markets such as Atlanta, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., California, Phoenix, Las Vegas, New York and South Florida. The portfolio includes some 70 assets, as reported by The WSJ, all of which the buyer plans to hold. This adds 77 new customers to Prologis’ portfolio, as well as expands the firm’s relationships with 50 existing ones.

Prologis President Dan Letter stated in prepared remarks that the deal is well within the company’s long-term growth strategy and that it demonstrates scalability. This acquisition represents one of more than a dozen deals between the two firms over the past 11 years.

Industrial assets as market outliers

Head of Blackstone for the Americas Nadeem Meghji mentioned that the transaction shows the extremely high demand for high-quality warehouse space in the current economic environment. As of April, the national average industrial rent hit $7.18 per square foot, marking a 7.3 percent year-over-year increase, a recent CommercialEdge report shows. In spite of rising interest rates and falling sales volumes, prices continued to grow, according to the same source. In the first four months of the year, $12.6 billion worth of industrial assets changed hands.

The team that served Blackstone as financial advisor included Eastdil Secured, Barclays, BofA Securities, Citigroup Global Markets Inc., Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC, J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, PJT Partners and Wells Fargo. Thacher & Bartlett LLP served as legal advisors.

This is a developing story. Check back for more as this unfolds.