Blackstone Buying Multifamily Owner Air Communities for $10B

The world’s largest owner of commercial real estate assets just got a whole lot bigger. 

Blackstone (BX) is set to acquire all outstanding shares of multifamily owner Apartment Income REIT, or Air Communities, for the eye-watering sum of approximately $10 billion, or $39.1 per share, and take the company private, Blackstone announced Monday. The transaction is all-cash and includes the assumption of debt.

Air Communities owns 76 rental communities, totaling just over 27,000 apartment units, across 10 states and Washington, D.C. Properties include 510 East 88th Street on the Upper East Side; Flamingo South Beach in Miami; and the Foxchase Apartments in Alexandria, Va., according to Air’s website.

Blackstone will invest an additional $400 million to update and maintain the communities in the newly gained portfolio, and may choose to invest yet more capital for future growth, according to the company. The Air Community news was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

“Air Communities represents the highest-quality, large-scale apartment portfolio we have ever acquired, and is located in markets where multifamily fundamentals are strong,” Nadeem Meghji, global co-head of real estate at Blackstone, said in a statement.

Air was founded in 2020 after developer AIMCO spun off part of its multifamily portfolio into a self-managed real estate investment trust. Since then, Air has sold off some of its New York City holdings as it focused on properties in the South, The Real Deal reported.

“The business the AIR team has built will be improved and expanded by collaboration with Blackstone and a shared focus on serving residents and investing wisely,” Terry Considine, president and CEO of Air, said in a statement.

As the first alternative commercial real estate manager to exceed $1 trillion in managed assets last year, Blackstone regularly deals in 10 figures. Late last month, the company sold a 48-property industrial portfolio in Southern California to Rexford Industrial Realty for $1 billion, while just a week earlier it secured a $2.35 billion refinancing package for a separate industrial portfolio spread across 11 states.

Nick Trombola can be reached at ntrombola@commercialobserver.com.