Deal Watch: Powerhouse investor dips into Portland — then flips

The biggest name on Wall Street bought into the Portland real estate market this year, but the deal didn’t have staying power.

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The biggest name on Wall Street bought into the Portland real estate market this year, but the deal didn’t have staying power. The Blackstone Group — whose March blockbuster IPO filing has finance junkies salivating — bought out Equity Office Partners in February for a stunning $39.2 billion. It was the largest private-equity buyout on record (we wonder how long that will hold up) and it suddenly made Blackstone the largest single owner of Portland-area office space with 4.1 million square feet of cubicle acreage.

With alarming speed Blackstone’s real-estate pros in New York slapped a $1 billion price tag on the 40 Portland-area properites — which includes pretty much all of Kruse Way in Lake Oswego, arguably the market’s hottest address — and found a buyer in San Francisco-based Shorenstein Properties. The sale closed in late March.

Gary Griff, a veteran office-space broker  at Cushman & Wakefield in Portland, says the speed of the transation was astounding. “They‘re handling real estate more like stocks and bonds.”

As for Shorenstein, now the area’s largest office landlord, Griff doesn’t expect to see much change.  “For the price they paid, they’ve got to be looking at this as a long-term investment.”

The portfolio includes three developable properties, including a parcel at the foot of Portland’s Hawthorne Bridge where Equity was knee-deep in plans to build a high-rise office tower.

— Christina Williams

List researched by Mark Druskoff

ND=Not disclosed

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