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Blackstone continues buying spree; Kushner negotiating debt deal for NY tower

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Blackstone continues buying spree; Kushner negotiating debt deal for NY tower

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

Blackstone merges on

* LaSalle Hotel Properties agreed to be acquired by affiliates of Blackstone Group LP for $33.50 per share in an all-cash deal valued at $4.8 billion. The agreement comes after the full-service hotel real estate investment trust received multiple offers from peer Pebblebrook Hotel Trust, with the latter's final offer having an implied price of $32.49 per share.

Jon Bortz, chairman, president and CEO of Pebblebrook, said the company is disappointed that LaSalle's board chose not to pursue a merger with Pebblebrook. Bortz said the combination of the two "highly similar" companies would have created an industry leader, particularly in the independent and lifestyle segment.

* Blackstone's core-plus real estate investment unit Blackstone Property Partners, in partnership with Canadian real estate company Ivanhoe Cambridge Inc., completed its C$3.8 billion takeover of Pure Industrial Real Estate Trust for C$8.10 per unit in cash. Blackstone Property Partners will own 62% and Ivanhoé Cambridge will own 38% of the industrial REIT.

Towering debt

* Kushner Cos. is in negotiations with LNR Partners LLC, the special servicer of the more than $1.4 billion of debt on the 666 Fifth Ave. tower in Manhattan, N.Y., that is due in February 2019, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

Kushner is in talks for Brookfield Property Partners LP to come on as a partner at the troubled 39-story tower, while Vornado plans to dispose of its 49.5% stake in the office portion of the building.

Gaining support

* Land & Buildings Investment Management LLC received support from proxy advisers Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. and Glass Lewis & Co. for its proposals at Taubman Centers Inc.'s forthcoming May 31 annual meeting. The activist shareholder is pushing for the election of its founder and Chief Investment Officer Jonathan Litt to the company's board and for the elimination of the company's dual-class voting share structure.

Billion dollar developments

* Kilroy Realty Corp. is asking city officials in South San Francisco to approve its acquisition of the planned $2 billion, 2.25 million-square-foot Landing at Oyster Point biotech development, the San Francisco Business Times reported. The office REIT agreed to buy the first two phases of the project in September 2017 from China's Greenland USA and negotiated a right of first offer to buy the development's third and fourth phases.

* Bedrock Detroit LLC secured a key approval that allows the full-service real estate firm to proceed with a $2.15 billion investment plan at four projects in downtown Detroit.

Going public

* American Finance Trust Inc. tapped BMO Capital Markets Corp. as its strategic adviser for potentially positioning the single-tenant net-lease REIT in the public markets.

Targets and commitments

* Rockpoint Group is launching its third lower-risk real estate fund, with a more than $2 billion target, PERE News reported.

* The Ohio Public Employees Retirement System allocated $2.60 billion to potential real estate investments in 2018 and the Employees Retirement System of Texas could commit as much as $825 million to real estate in the 2019 fiscal year, IPE Real Assets reported, citing board meeting documents.

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