Blackstone pumps $137M into Chicago industrial

Investment giant purchased four properties near O’Hare International Airport

Blackstone Pays CenterPoint $137M for O’Hare Industrial

Blackstone's Stephen Schwarzman with (clockwise from top left) 10701 Seymour Avenue, 10601 Seymour Avenue, 1601 Estes Avenue and 10700 Waveland Avenue (Google Maps, Getty)

Miranda Davis

Oct 24, 2023, 1:46 PM

Blackstone is going deep in suburban Chicago’s industrial market, with the purchase of four industrial properties totaling nearly $137 million.

The New York-based firm purchased four industrial properties near O’Hare International Airport from CenterPoint Properties, an Oak Brook-based firm with a national warehousing footprint that has proven time and again that it develops and assembles portfolios desirable to Blackstone.

The properties range from $18 million to $56.5 million, with three in Franklin Park and one in Elk Grove. The deals closed in late September, according to Cook County records.

CenterPoint did not respond to a request for comment and Blackstone declined to comment.

The deal appears to be a repeat of history for Blackstone, which purchased a $151 million portfolio from CenterPoint in 2021. Those seven properties are fully leased to tenants including FedEx and Lenze, and are located in Bensenville, Itasca, Elmhurst, McCook, Northlake and Glendale Heights. In 2020, there was an even bigger deal between the two firms, when Blackstone dropped about $400 million to pick up 27 properties in the suburbs of Chicago and Wisconsin.

The latest acquisitions came less than a month after Blackstone reported another drop in real estate sales last week and its profits had slid 12 percent.

The company’s third-quarter asset sales in the segment slipped 93 percent from a year ago as surging interest rates and uncertainty keep deals on hold. It was the fourth straight quarter of decreasing real estate sales for the investment giant.

Meanwhile, Industrial continues to perform well in the Windy City and nationally, as the sector seems to be less swayed by the challenges facing office and retail.

Blackstone’s other recent notable deals include a Washington D.C. office sale at $305 million earlier this month. The Blackstone Group and Boston Properties sold Metropolitan Square at 655 15th Street NW to Chevy Chase-based Artemis Real Estate Partners. The Blackstone affiliate had an 80-percent stake in the property, while BXP owned the rest.

And In August, Blackstone sold Realty Income a 22 percent stake in the Bellagio casino and resort in Las Vegas.

National