(Bloomberg) -- Blackstone Group LP acquired a group of Southern California warehouses and related properties from Principal Real Estate Investors, expanding its bet on growing web commerce and global trade.
The New York-based private equity firm paid $500 million for the buildings, according to a person with knowledge of the transaction, who asked not to be named because the details are private. The properties total about 4 million square feet (371,600 square meters).
Principal Real Estate Investors, a unit of Des Moines, Iowa-based Principal Financial Group Inc., had owned the properties as part of a joint venture with Majestic Realty Co. The insurer said Oct. 27 that it realized a $411 million after-tax gain from a transaction tied to the venture. Jane Slusark, a Principal spokeswoman, confirmed that Blackstone purchased some of the assets.
“Majestic was a successful venture for us over the past 40 years. We felt now was the time to harvest some of those gains,” Slusark said in an email Tuesday. “Southern California industrial is still a strategic, important part of our real estate strategy.”
A spokeswoman for Blackstone, which has bought and sold billions of dollars of industrial properties during the past decade, declined to comment. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier Tuesday that the company was the buyer. Peter Grauer, chairman of Bloomberg LP, is a non-executive director at Blackstone.
To contact the reporters on this story: Hui-yong Yu in Seattle at hyu@bloomberg.net, Katherine Chiglinsky in New York at kchiglinsky@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Daniel Taub at dtaub@bloomberg.net, Kara Wetzel, Dan Reichl
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