Tim Johnson, Katie Keenan and Michael Wiebolt

Despite myriad situations and scenarios checking into the capital markets this past year, Blackstone racked up $21.3 billion in total transactions between BREDS’ $9.7 billion in global originations ($7 billion of which was in the U.S.) and $11.6 billion in securities volume. 

Last year was a record year for Blackstone, with headlines including an $8 billion raise for BREDS V; acquiring a $1 billion loan portfolio from Germany’s PBB; BXMT launching an agency multifamily lending partnership with M&T Realty Capital; and a plethora of sizable debt deals, such as the $740 million BREDS construction loan for the Bal Harbour Shops in Miami.

“We’ve lived through a very wide variety of market conditions in the last 12 months. That is a challenge, but it’s also — for our business — a huge opportunity, and I think we’ve been able to demonstrate our strength throughout,” Katie Keenan said.

While others stepped back during moments of volatility, gazing at the market with noses pressed against the glass like Dickensian street urchins, Blackstone leaned in with a lot of conviction in its cup, and got to work. 

“Our $21 billion of investments over the last 12 months is really a testament to the breadth and the strength of our platform,” Keenan said. “A lot of other businesses out there are really great at one or two things. We’re global, we invest across public and private sectors, and we source deals every way you can think of. We’re buying loan portfolios, we’re making loans, we’re partnering with folks who need something bespoke in the capital structure. If we start with a lot of conviction in an investment opportunity in real estate credit, we’re able to find ways to access investment opportunities through a lot of different methodologies.” 

In a broadly constrained lending environment, Blackstone serviced various borrower types across its different verticals, including both repeat and new clients. 

“We love to use the restaurant analogy of Blackstone where we want people to come into the restaurant to try our cooking, and hopefully they like it and want to come back a bunch,” Michael Wiebolt said. “We’ve had the opportunity to feed more folks with what we have to offer, and hopefully they’ll want to keep coming back for more.” 

Speed and certainty of execution was a favorite menu item this past year, as Blackstone helped borrowers effectuate their business plans, provided financing solutions to borrowers or counterparties facing regulatory changes or economic challenges, and served as a capital solutions provider in a moment when banks and other traditional sources of capital are pulling back. It also snapped up some sizable loan pools.

“We’ve had moments in time where each of those things was the most compelling thing on the board, and we’ve had moments in time when all of those things were compelling all at once,” Wiebolt said. “To me, that’s a positive change from the world that we were all living in from the midpoint of `22 to the end of `23, where activity levels were constrained.” 

BREDS alone has $77 billion in assets under management today, and the scale, breadth and depth of its capabilities made it a critical player in finance. Still, when it came to deciding where and when to strike, the firm relied heavily on data. 

“It’s easier to anticipate and not react to trends in a dynamic market when you’re constantly being supplied with the most real-time data from the portfolio of real estate that we own,” Wiebolt said. “You can’t pick the right things to do if you don’t have the data to assess a variety of things. And the second thing is, you need the people power to be able to actually execute on them. We’re fortunate to have a large-scale business with lots of people around the globe who sit within each of these verticals and capabilities. Most wonderful to me is that we’re all extremely communicative.”

Wiebolt has something else to celebrate this year: The arrival of his first child, Jack Michael, who was born the day after the close of BREDS’ recent fund in March. “I told my wife that I was going to name him BREDS V if he arrived on the day it closed, but she wasn’t very supportive of that, so luckily he arrived a day later,” Wiebolt said. 

As 2025 progresses, the team is taking recent market volatility in its stride.  “Our markets are basically punctuated equilibrium,” Wiebolt said. “You feel you’re stuck in a certain rut, then all of a sudden you wake up one morning and things are different. And we’re in one of those periods of punctuation right now. The most important thing from our perspective is that we have capital across all the different strategies within our business that’s ready to be deployed in the context of whatever opportunity set arises next.” 

Plus, all three of our Blackstone honorees transacted through the Global Financial Crisis, and by now have plenty of experience in the trenches. 

“This environment is unlike most of what we’ve lived through, but I’m just really excited by it, because we have all the tools and also this really exciting energy around how to tackle it,” Keenan said.