Blackstone buys logistics portfolio from Principal Financial

The private equity firm’s purchase of the 4 million-square-foot industrial real estate portfolio reportedly includes warehouses, distribution centers and other industrial sites.    Iowa-based financial investment management firm Principal Financial Group, which in September bought out its co-owner of 16 million square feet of industrial assets in the Los Angeles area, is now selling a quarter of that square footage to private equity firm the Blackstone Group.
   The purchase of the 4-million-square-foot portfolio reportedly includes warehouses, distribution centers and other industrial sites. The sale price was $500 million, according to a recent account in the Wall Street Journal, which cites “people familiar with the matter.”
   Principal Financial subsidiary Principal Real Estate Investors bought out its 50/50 partner in the properties, Majestic Realty, in late September. At the time, the assessed value of the full portfolio was over $111 million.
   The purchase by Blackstone further expands the New York City-based asset management and financial firm’s Southern California presence, following last year’s $1.5 billion acquisition of a portfolio of West Coast logistics centers from LBA Realty.
   However, it has also been selling properties in addition to buying them. In June, Blackstone Real Estate sold pan European logistics company Logicor to China Investment Corp. for $14.2 billion. And in late 2014, it sold a Los Angeles commercial property to Rockpoint Group for $215 million.