From left: 145-07 156th Street, 182-09 149th Road, and 149-39 Guy R Brewer Blvd in Queens with Blackstone’s president Jonathan Gray
Blackstone dropped at least $129 million on its latest Queens industrial acquisition, property records show.
The purchase, spread over 20 parcels near John F. Kennedy Airport, is part of a larger deal with seller TA Realty. For $1 billion, TA Realty sold an industrial portfolio to Blackstone and AEW Capital Management in separate deals; Blackstone picked up 68 properties across the country and AEW bought 28 in Texas, Commercial Property Executive reported.
The breakdown of each deal is not publicly known. It was not immediately clear if TA Realty, a Boston-based real estate investment management firm, sold additional New York assets to Blackstone.
TA Realty and Blackstone did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
New York Life Insurance Company also lent about $44.8 million to Blackstone for some of the properties, financing that appears to be a part of a larger $450 million deal, property records show. (Commercial Property Executive first reported the loan.)
The New York properties range from a two-story warehouse at 145-07 156th Street to a one-story asset at 149-39 Guy R. Brewer Boulevard. Not all the buildings are industrial: A three-story office building stands at 156-15 146th Avenue.
Blackstone began ramping up its industrial acquisitions before its deal with TA Realty. Earlier this year, the private equity giant picked up an $18.7 billion warehouse portfolio from Singaporean company GLP, marking one of the largest industrial real estate plays ever.
Thanks to the continuing rise of e-commerce, last-mile warehouses have been in high demand: Industrial space had a less than 5 percent vacancy rate nationwide at the end of the first quarter, per CBRE. Meanwhile, asking rents have been creeping up since 2011, according to Cushman & Wakefield.