Blackstone to Acquire Retail Opportunity Investments Corp. for $4B

The deal announced Wednesday is the latest in a series of major real estate moves by Blackstone this year.

Head shot of Jonathan Gray, president & COO of Blackstone
Jonathan Gray, president & COO of Blackstone. Image courtesy of Blackstone

Blackstone Real Estate Partners X has entered an agreement with Retail Opportunity Investments Corp. to acquire all of its outstanding common shares and debt for $4 billion. The deal is set to be an all-cash transaction and represents a 34 percent premium of ROIC’s closing share price in July of this year.

ROIC’s portfolio is made up of 93 grocery-anchored retail properties. They are located in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and Portland and total 10.5 million square feet.

In prepared remarks, Jacob Werner, co-head of Americas acquisitions at Blackstone Real Estate, said that the deal reflects the company’s bullish outlook on necessity-based, grocery-anchored retail. Specifically, the company is optimistic on demand for these types of assets in densely populated areas where there are very low levels of new supply.


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Pending customary closing conditions, including the approval of Blackstone common stockholders, the deal is set to close in the first quarter of next year. ROIC’s Board of Directors has already approved the transaction.

ROIC’s financial advisor was J.P. Morgan and its legal counsel was Clifford Chance US LLP. BofA Securities, Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, Newmark and Eastdil Secured were Blackstone’s financial advisors while Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP was the company’s legal counsel.

The deal announced today is the latest in a series of major Blackstone real estate acquisitions this year. In April it signed a $10 billion deal to acquire Apartment Income REIT. The portfolio comprised 76 multifamily communities primarily in coastal markets.

Also, Blackstone-owned QTS expanded its presence recently with plans for a 3 million-square-foot data center campus in Phoenix. It is set to include 16 buildings of 180,000 square feet each.  

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