Blackstone Adds to Warehouse Bet With $2.8 Billion Portfolio of Properties

(Bloomberg) -- Blackstone Inc. bought a portfolio of 124 logistics properties from Cabot Properties Inc. for $2.8 billion, the private equity company's latest wager on warehousing in Europe and the U.S. 

The sales comprised 102 properties in the U.S. and 22 in the U.K., Germany and the Netherlands, according to a statement Tuesday. The two deals total 17.4 million square feet (1.6 million square meters) of space. 

Warehouses are among Blackstone's biggest bets, with the firm banking on sustained demand and rising rents for properties that cut delivery times for booming e-commerce firms. Demand for the space has soared during the pandemic as more people shopped online rather than in stores.

Blackstone has led a wave of investment in logistics properties over the past decade. In 2012, it established Logicor, a large warehouse business, which it expanded and eventually sold to China Investment Corp. in 2017 for nearly 12.3 billion euros ($13.9 billion).

Read more: CIC to Buy Blackstone's Logicor Warehouses for $13.8 Billion

“The logistics sector continues to benefit from strong tailwinds driven by e-commerce,” David Levine, senior managing director at Blackstone Real Estate, said in the statement. 

The U.S. properties were acquired by Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust Inc., a nontraded REIT. The firm's European Core+ business acquired the European properties.  

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