Blackstone said it has reached a deal to buy PS Business for about $7.6 billion, including debt. PSB, a real-estate investment trust, owns and operates industrial and low-rise suburban offices and business parks, mostly in California, Miami, Texas and Northern Virginia. As of March 30, the company owned 96 properties with 4,900 tenants. The company’s portfolio also includes 800 residential units.
Trump Washington
Miami investment fund, CGI Merchant Group is paying $375 million to buy Trumps’ Washington Hotel lease and will begin the process of rebranding the property as a Waldorf Astoria.
Warehouse Rents
Warehouse rental rates increased 15.2% annually across the U.S. in Q1 of 2022.
Fed
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell signaled the central bank was likely to raise interest rates by a half percentage point at its meeting next month and indicated similar rate rises could be warranted after that to lower inflation.
Blackstone
Blackstone’s assets under management rose to $915.5 billion, up from $880.9 billion in the prior quarter and $648.8 billion a year earlier. The firm raised nearly $50 billion during the quarter, pushing it closer to its goal of reaching $1 trillion in assets by 2026.
HST
Host Hotels & Resorts has sold the 1,780-room Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel for $373 million.
BX ACC
Blackstone Inc. agreed to buy student-housing owner American Campus Communities Inc. in a deal valuing the company at about $12.8 billion, including debt, a bet that rents will continue to rise as more college students return to campus.
HOAs
Home Owner Associations are blocking companies from buying single-family homes, rewriting homeownership rulebooks to thwart investor purchases of suburban housing as rental properties.
Mortgage Rates
Interest on the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage climbed from 4.72% a week ago to over 5%, its highest level since early 2011. Fifteen months ago, mortgage rates were at all-time lows.
Office Space
Office building landlords are bracing for a record amount of U.S. office space that is hitting the market this year with leases for 243 million square feet of U.S. office space set to expire in 2022, a 40% increase since 2018.