Equity Residential to Purchase Blackstone Portfolio for $964M
The deal is slated to close in the third quarter.
Equity Residential is acquiring 11 apartment communities from Blackstone Real Estate for $964 million. The purchase of the properties, which total 3,572 apartments, will close later this year.
The communities are situated in three of Equity Residential’s targeted expansion markets. Four properties, totaling 1,357 units, are in Atlanta., with another four communities totaling 1,237 apartments located in Dallas-Fort Worth. Three properties, totaling 978 units, are situated in Denver.
In prepared remarks, Alec Brackenridge, executive vice president and chief investment officer at Equity Residential, called the acquisitions a significant step in the firm’s goal of generating a higher percentage of our annual net operating income from the targeted markets.
The properties will be purchased in separate transactions from Blackstone Real Estate entities, including Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust, Blackstone Real Estate Partners and Blackstone Property Partners. All of the transactions are expected to close in the third quarter.
Eastdil Secured, RBC Capital Markets, Santander and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation advised Blackstone on the deal, with Simpson Thacher & Bartlett providing legal counsel. Neal Gerber & Eisenberg, Hogan Lovells and Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner were Equity Residential’s legal advisers.
A busy year so far
Both Equity Residential and Blackstone have had busy years already. Equity Residential recently purchased a garden-style community in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The 324-unit property, Marlowe Grapevine, was acquired from Greystar and Carlyle. The buyer renamed the community Trailwinds Grapevine.
Earlier this year, Blackstone agreed to acquire Tricon Residential for $3.5 billion. Along with a $1 billion development pipeline of single-family homes in the U.S., the portfolio also included some 38,000 rental homes.
More recently, Blackstone has agreed to acquire Apartment Income REIT Corp., known as AIR Communities, for $10 billion. The portfolio comprises 76 multifamily communities. Blackstone Real Estate Partners X agreed to acquire the company in an all-cash transaction.
