Blackstone Refinances Industrial Portfolio With $1 Billion CMBS Loan
Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust, a publicly registered non-traded real estate investment trust sponsored by private equity giant The Blackstone Group (NYSE:BX), has refinanced a large industrial portfolio with a $1 billion commercial mortgage-backed securities loan.
The financing – originated by major financial institutions including Goldman Sachs, German American Capital Corp., Barclays Capital Real Estate Inc., and JPMorgan Chase – will primarily be used to repay a previous $981 million loan on the portfolio, with the remainder covering closing costs.
The interest-only, floating-rate loan has an initial two-year term with the option for three one-year extensions.
The refinanced portfolio comprises 59 properties spanning 13 states and totaling 11.6 million square feet. The assets, acquired by BREIT between 2018 and 2020, include a diverse range of industrial facilities: 13 bulk warehouses, 18 other warehouses, five cold storage facilities, 21 light industrial facilities, one manufacturing asset; and a surface parking lot.
The properties have an average age of 33 years and are strategically located in “well established infill areas with good access to major area highways,” according to the presale report by global credit ratings agency KBRA, which highlighted this activity. The largest concentrations of these properties are in California (2.7 million square feet) and Florida, Indiana, Ohio, and Georgia – the latter quartet each holding at least 1 million square feet.
As of April 2025, the portfolio had an occupancy rate of 96.2%, leased to 145 different tenants. While 18 properties are single-tenant, the portfolio exhibits significant tenant diversity overall. Key tenants include Stockton Logistics, Penske Logistics, Aberdeen Logistics, HD Supply Facilities Maintenance, and KiwiCo.
Independent assessments of the portfolio’s value varied slightly. Global credit rating agency Fitch estimated a “stressed net cash flow” of $72.3 million, while KBRA projected a $71 million net cash flow. These figures are 9.3% and 11% lower, respectively, than the issuer’s own net cash flow estimate. For their valuations, KBRA applied a 7.74% capitalization rate, and Fitch used a 7.375% cap rate, both higher than the issuer’s implied 5.27% cap rate.
KBRA also assigned the portfolio an average weighted property score of 3.05 on a scale of one to five, indicating its quality.
Earlier this year, BREIT announced numerous leadership changes. It appointed A.J. Agarwal as co-president of the company and a director; it designated Robert Harper as co-president alongside Agarwal; it appointed Glen Bartley as chief operating officer; and Brian Kim, the company’s head of acquisitions and capital markets and a director, stepped down from his position and took another position as the global chief operating officer of Blackstone’s real estate debt strategies business.
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