Blackstone Acquires Four-Property SoHo Retail Portfolio for $198M

Blackstone (BX) is the latest investor to buy up high-quality retail in SoHo.

The private equity firm has purchased a four-property retail portfolio in the popular Manhattan shopping neighborhood from ASB Real Estate Investments for $197.5 million, sources familiar with the deal told Commercial Observer.

The sale includes a total of 131,257 square feet across four properties: 61 Crosby Street, 72-76 Greene Street, 415 West Broadway and 465 Broadway. Blackstone acquired the properties through its “opportunistic funds,” a source said.

Major tenants at the properties include retailers Patagonia, Amiri and Ganni, as well as venture capital firm Comcast Ventures.

“We are thrilled to acquire this attractive retail portfolio located in the heart of one of the city’s most dynamic neighborhoods,” Elena Clarfield, senior associate at Blackstone, said in a statement to CO. “This transaction illustrates Blackstone’s ability to play offense in today’s market and identify terrific opportunities for our investors in prime locations.”

Newmark (NMRK)’s Adam Spies, Adam Doneger, Joshua King, Doug Harmon, Marcella Fasulo and Avery Silverstein brokered the sale. The Real Deal first reported the sale. A spokesperson for Newmark declined to provide a comment.

Starting in 2012, ASB paid $204 million over four years to acquire the four SoHo properties with its partners, TRD reported. But last year, ASB announced it planned to offload more than $1 billion of its real estate, and it had 24 assets on the market by the end of the third quarter, according to the outlet.

“The sale aligns with ASB’s strategy to sell most of our office investments in favor of concentrating in industrial, apartment and self-storage sectors, which we expect to have stronger risk-adjusted returns,” ASB CEO Robert Bellinger said in a statement to CO.

Blackstone’s deal comes as retail investment sales in SoHo have spiked this year as the neighborhood’s recovery from the COVID pandemic leads to higher rents and more tourists.

As of the end of October, there was a total dollar volume of $259.8 million in investment sales in SoHo in 2024 — $101.1 million of which was for retail properties, according to data from Ariel Property Advisors.

“Ultimately, [SoHo] is one of the hottest shopping and tourist destinations in the world, and this is reflective of that,” Ariel’s Michael Tortorici previously told CO. “High-demand retail areas of the city have bounced back, pricing has recovered, the institutional interest has recovered, and now it’s showing up in sales as well.”

Isabelle Durso can be reached at idurso@commercialobserver.com.