Blackstone Group doubled down this weekend on its commitment to the logistics space, placing a $18.7 billion bet on what on the surface may be the dullest corner of the real estate market — logistics.
But this is logistics supercharged by Amazon, which is reshaping consumers’ buying habits. Blackstone has been busy in the warehouse space for about a decade — spending billions in Europe, Asia and North America — and it’s stomping on the accelerator with the purchase of 179 million square feet in the U.S. that nearly doubles its logistics footprint.
- “Logistics is our highest conviction global investment theme today,” Ken Caplan, global co-head of Blackstone Real Estate said when the deal with Singapore’s GLP was announced Sunday. Blackstone says it has acquired more than 930m square feet of logistics over the past nine years.
- Blackstone’s gurus believe these concrete and steel-truss boxes — filled with robotic packers and forklifts, and inventory-monitoring drones — will keep popping up in and around U.S. cities as ecommerce accelerates and efficiency improves
- Amazon and other companies are evaluating delivery systems for ways to reduce carbon output and waste; Amazon in February said it aims to make half of its shipments “net carbon zero” by 2030. The company is also installing solar panels on their warehouses, which they refer to in corporate babble as “fulfillment and sortation centers.”
Ron Day is a Senior Editor at Karma. Previously he covered companies and markets for nearly 20 years at Bloomberg News.
