Blackstone makes $18.7 billion investment in warehouses

Purchase of 179 million square feet of space from Singapore’s GLP is part of plan to meet e-commerce demand.    Blackstone has purchased 179 million square feet of “urban, infill logistics assets” to serve the e-commerce industry from GLP, a Singapore investment manager, for $18.7 billion.    Blackstone said the deal nearly doubles the size of  its existing U.S. industrial footprint and that it is one of the leading owners of logistics properties today with assets in North America, Europe and Asia.    “Logistics is our highest conviction global investment theme today, and we look forward to building on our existing portfolio to meet the growing e-commerce demand,” said  Ken Caplan (pictured above), global co-head of Blackstone Real Estate.    The company said, “In the U.S., Blackstone built and sold Indcor and successfully replicated this strategy with Logicor in Europe. Inclusive of this transaction, Blackstone has acquired over 930 million square feet of logistics globally since 2010.”     GLP is a global investment manager with $64 billion in assets under management in real estate and a 785 million-square-foot portfolio. It said it will remain invested in the U.S. across real estate, technology and credit and is committed long term to the U.S. market.