Blackstone To Sell Five Boston Towers for $2.1B

Oxford Properties Group, the property investment arm of the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS), is leading a consortium of buyers that has agreed to buy five high-rise office towers in Boston, MA from Blackstone Group for about $2.1 billion. According to a Boston Globe article, Blackstone originally acquired the properties when it bought Equity Office Properties Trust, a landlord built by the Chicago real estate magnate Sam Zell, for $39 billion in 2007. Oxford Properties oversees about $20 billion of assets it manages for itself and on behalf of partners. Other bidders on the Boston portfolio reportedly include the Government of Singapore, and a joint venture of Norway's sovereign wealth fund and MetLife Inc.

As part of the agreement, Oxford would buy all of 100 High St. and 125 Summer St., according to a Wall Street Journal report. Oxford intends to partner with the asset management arm of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. to buy three towers: 60 State St., 225 Franklin St. and One Memorial Dr. in neighboring Cambridge. The five-building portfolio totals almost 3.3 million square feet and are properties mostly in downtown Boston.

Blackstone Group is also selling its ownership stake in another Boston building in the portfolio, Rowes Wharf, to Morgan Stanley, which is its partner in the building.

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