Blackstone Merges Office And Retail Portfolios To Create Perform Properties
Blackstone is combining three of its portfolio companies to create a new real estate firm with exposure to the office and retail sectors.
The New York-based investment giant is creating Perform Properties by merging ShopCore Properties, Retail Opportunity Investments Corp. and EQ Office. The 33M SF Perform Properties portfolio consists of 175 properties across 36 markets.
Alex Vouvalides, who led ShopCore and EQ Office, is CEO of the new company.
“In a market where people have more choices than ever, the properties that succeed are those that perform — for tenants, customers, investors, and communities,” Vouvalides said in a statement.
Perform Properties' portfolio comprises 155 retail locations and 20 office properties, according to CoStar.
Blackstone partially signaled the merger in the last few months. ShopCore’s CEO left the firm in December and was replaced by Vouvalides, who was already running EQ Office.
Departing ShopCore CEO Marc Ricks said in a LinkedIn post at the time that Blackstone was moving to create a “best-in-class, diversified real estate operating platform focused on both retail and office assets.”
The addition of Retail Opportunity Investments Corp. adds 10.5M SF of West Coast shopping center real estate to the portfolio. Blackstone completed its $4B acquisition of ROIC, which had been a public REIT, in February.
Perform Properties’ retail portfolio includes 19M SF of open-air retail centers on both sides of the U.S., while its office holdings include Chicago’s Willis Tower and 211 Main St. in San Francisco, according to CoStar.
Blackstone has also taken big swings at U.S. industrial assets in recent months.
It secured $800M this week from Norway’s sovereign wealth fund to invest in the U.S. and Canadian logistics sector. In April, it agreed to pay $718M for a 95% stake in a 6M SF U.S. industrial portfolio developed by Crow Holdings.
Blackstone hasn’t been immune to the uncertainty that pervades markets as President Donald Trump attempts to reshape the global trade order. Its first-quarter realizations, or profit-generating trades, for its real estate business fell 65% compared to last year, to just $4.3B.
Blackstone attracted $62B worth of capital inflows in the first quarter, its highest level in nearly three years, although just $6.1B of that fundraising went toward real estate vehicles. Blackstone had $177B in dry powder for investments at the end of March.
“When prices reset lower we think of that as an opportunity,” Blackstone President Jon Gray told Bloomberg last month.
