Blackstone is the world leader in private equity real estate investment.  Global in scope, our real estate business has offices in New York, Chicago, London, Paris, Mumbai, Tokyo and Hong Kong.  Real estate fee earning assets under management totaled $23.7 billion as of September 30, 2009.

Our real estate holdings are significant in scale and broadly diversified, encompassing office, hotel, healthcare, retail and multi-family properties around the world.  Blackstone has the world’s leading hotel portfolio, as well as one of the largest portfolios of office buildings in the United States.  Our holdings include many of the world’s best known real estate brands, such as Hilton, La Quinta, Equity Office Properties and world-famous properties such as the Waldorf=Astoria, Boca Raton Resort & Club and the Trianon Palace Versailles.  Prominent office properties include Class A buildings in prime markets such as Boston, Los Angeles, New York, London and Frankfurt.

Blackstone’s real estate group is well-positioned for future opportunities to acquire assets at compelling values. We have more than $12 billion as of June 30, 2009, of equity capital available for investment in our various real estate funds, which we believe is the largest pool of capital for potential global real estate investments available today.  This capital should allow us to participate in what is expected to be an unusually favorable investment environment over the next several years.

Leveraging Blackstone’s vast real estate experience, the real estate group recently expanded its platform to take advantage of real estate debt investment opportunities. The debt platform targets a diverse array of potential investments, including publicly traded debt securities, origination of whole loans and mezzanine debt, acquisition of performing and sub-performing real estate loans, rescue financing and preferred equity.