Scott Trebilco
Senior managing director in the real estate group at Blackstone
It’s been an eventful couple of years in the capital markets, to say the least, but some firms have leaned into the dislocation and uncertainty by striking while the iron is hot.
“Eighteen months ago we said we believed asset values were bottoming, and that we’d start investing ahead of the all-clear signal into our highest-conviction themes. I think you’ve seen us do that,” Blackstone’s L.A.-based Scott Trebilco said. “Since then, we’ve deployed around $35 billion globally, and we’ve invested over $13 billion this year alone.”
In terms of the aforementioned themes, Blackstone stays consistent, with strategic investments around digital infrastructure, last-mile logistics, and housing — and also expanding its tried-and-tested repertoire.
“We’re building on our conviction and existing themes, but we’re also trying to capture some shifting tailwinds into themes like necessity-based, grocery-anchored retail,” he said, “and re-entering high-quality office assets in markets with strengthening fundamentals and value dislocation.”
The firm even recently closed a wee $4 billion transaction to underscore its conviction.
“Our focus around grocery-anchored retail has been very West Coast-dominant, because of the resilient demand that we’ve seen here,” Trebilco said. “We took private ROIC, a $4 billion grocery-anchored retail REIT, earlier this year. It has a strong presence in Los Angeles and the surrounding areas. It was the largest retail transaction since 2011, and reflects our strong conviction, particularly in densely populated areas like L.A.”
Trebilco describes L.A. as a “diverse and vibrant major global economy.” And there are plenty of transactions in and around it that the Blackstone team could be proud of this past year. But top of mind for Trebilco is neither an investment nor a divestment.
“With the difficult year that L.A. had with the fire, we were able to donate some of our office space at One Colorado,” he said, referring to a mixed-use complex in Pasadena close to where the Eaton fire destroyed around 6,000 buildings. “It enabled almost 200 kids impacted by the fires to go back to school, and that was probably our proudest moment this year in the region.”
