NEW YORK CITY and LOS ANGELES-A joint venture of SL Green Realty Corp.  and three other New York City-based companies has recapitalized the debt on the so-called Cabi Portfolio, a 31-property collection of Southern California office buildings. Total financing on the portfolio after the recap is $746.8 million, the REIT said Thursday morning, and the Blackstone Group is now the majority owner of the JV. Other partners in the JV include Gramercy Capital Corp. and Square Mile Capital Management LLC.

Equity Office Properties, a Blackstone affiliate, will assume full responsibility for the 4.5-million-square-foot, 59-building portfolio’s management and leasing. It includes assets such as the Los Angeles Corporate Center in Monterey Park, Skyview Center in Los Angeles, 350 So. Beverly Dr. in Beverly Hills and Carmel Valley Center in San Diego’s Del Mar Heights.

Blackstone is putting about $85 million into de-leveraging the portfolio, reserves, adding to its existing 11.2 million square foot of office in Southern California. “We believe our investment of capital should allow the portfolio to fully benefit from the continued market recovery,” says Jacob Werner, principal in Blackstone’s real estate group, in a release.

SL Green’s status as what the Wall Street Journal termed “an accidental owner on the West Coast” stemmed from its 2007 acquisition of a slice of junior debt in the property that was used to finance Meixco-based Cabi Developers’ $1.5-billion acquisition of the portfolio. Cabi lost control of the portfolio in late 2008 to a JV of junior lenders, including Hines, the WSJ reported in late September. An SL Green-led group bought out the portfolio's ownership over the summer, prior to Blackstone taking the lead on the recap, according to the WSJ.

The extended $678.8-million mortgage financing was led by New York Life Insurance Co. as agent. It also involved the following lenders: DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale, Westdeutsche ImmobilienBank AG, Muenchener Hypothekenbank eG and Wells Fargo Bank.