EQ Office

EQ Office, formerly known as Equity Office, is the workspace portfolio owned and managed by Blackstone Group. The privately held investment firm is based in Chicago. Sam Zell founded it 45 years ago, and Blackstone acquired it in 2007.

As of early 2021, the portfolio included trophy properties around the country in cities like New York, Los Angeles, Washington, Chicago, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Miami and Seattle, and was host to premiere tenant headquarters for a wide range of clients in tech, fashion, coworking and financial services in Lower Manhattan.

Also as of early 2021, EQ Office’s properties included the historic Willis Tower, which it acquired for $1.3 billion in 2015 in the priciest deal for one property outside of New York City at the time. EQ Office also manages assets in the most in-demand districts of the country. For example, in March 2020, EQ Office sold the 350,000-square-foot building at 44 Wall Street.

EQ Office also operates a 1.4 million-square-foot office campus that spans more than 33 acres in L.A.’s Silicon Beach, previously known as the Howard Hughes Center. The firm acquired the property as part of a larger seven-property, $1.6 billion acquisition in June 2016. Coincidentally, EQ Office also owns the Hughes Center in Las Vegas, named after Howard Hughes, with 1.5 million square feet of office space and a large luxury apartment property.