Real Estate

Blackstone’s $17 Billion Property Lending Arm Isn’t Giving Up on Its Office Bets

The Spiral building at 66 Hudson Boulevard in the Hudson Yards neighborhood.Photographer: Jose A. Alvarado Jr/Bloomberg
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After a yearslong downturn that left US offices empty, Blackstone Inc. President Jon Gray sees the sector as ripe for new bets. His real estate dealmakers are preparing to scoop up a stake in a 50-story building in Midtown Manhattan, the strongest signal yet that it sees the market primed for a rebound.

Executives running the firm’s commercial mortgage trust, meanwhile, are still sorting through old office loans gone bad. Blackstone Mortgage Trust Inc. untangled more than $1 billion of soured debt, mostly tied to offices, in the final quarter of last year.