Blackstone affiliate completes $3.2B WPT deal; JLL to buy Building Engines

S&P Global Market Intelligence offers our top picks of real estate news stories published throughout the week.

U.S. commercial property sales have reached an all-time high of $462.1 billion in the first three quarters of 2021, boosted by single-asset sales. The previous all-time high for the first three quarters of $448 billion was reached in 2007, when entity-level sales in the office and retail sectors accounted for one-fifth of deal activity, Real Capital Analytics' US Capital Trends report showed.

Real Capital Analytics noted that the apartment and industrial sectors comprised 59% of the activity in the first three quarters and 62% in the third quarter. The strength of individual asset sales underscores the market's strength, as entity-level sales are usually based on temporary financing costs situations and other factors, the report noted.

Individual asset sales, which "represent buyers underwriting the health of the market one deal at a time," were up 130% year over year in the third quarter and were up 29% compared with the third quarter of 2019.

M&A beat

* An affiliate of Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust Inc. completed its $3.2 billion acquisition of Canadian industrial real estate investment trust WPT Industrial Real Estate Investment Trust.

* Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. agreed to buy property operations platform provider Building Engines Inc. in a cash transaction valued at approximately $300 million.

Property matters

* KKR & Co. Inc. bought a majority stake in the public observation deck at The Related Cos. LP's 30 Hudson Yards tower in New York City for more than $500 million, Bloomberg News reported, citing a person with knowledge of the deal.

* Rexford Industrial Realty Inc. bought 13 properties for $880.5 million during the third quarter, including 2,083,892 square feet of buildings and 139.7 acres of low-coverage outdoor storage sites and land for future redevelopment.

* Brookfield Properties has filed plans for a $2 billion project in San Francisco that will convert the Stonestown Galleria mall and its parking lots into a new neighborhood with around 2,900 homes along with stores and office space, The Real Deal reported, citing a preliminary project assessment filed with the city's planning department.

* Vornado Realty Trust intends to construct a roughly $288 million mixed-use tower near its Alexander at Rego Park luxury rental apartment building in Queens, N.Y., The Real Deal reported, citing filed plans for the project. The 32-story project will include 573 residential units along with 61,000 square feet of commercial space.

* Starwood Capital Group Management LLC raised more than $10 billion for Starwood Distressed Opportunity Fund XII and related entities that will target distressed real estate including hotels, offices and residential housing, Dow Jones Newswires reported.

Contingent investment

* WeWork signed a deal to receive a $150 million investment from commercial real estate services company Cushman & Wakefield PLC that is subject to the coworking company closing its planned IPO with a blank-check company, Bloomberg News reported, citing a person familiar with the matter.

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