NEW YORK CITY—The Blackstone Group is set to close its latest opportunistic real estate fund at a formidable $15.8 billion, according to published reports and an industry source familiar with the matter. Furthermore, the investment firm reportedly has agreed to by a trio of hotels from Paulson & Co. for $1.3 billion. A spokesman for Blackstone says the firm has no comment on either transaction.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Blackstone completed the institutional portion of fundraising for Blackstone Real Estate Partners VIII this past Friday, with $14.5 billion in commitments. It plans to raise an additional $1.3 billion from retail investors, thus bringing the total to $15.8 billion.

That tally is about $2.5 billion larger than BREP VIII's predecessor, Blackstone Real Estate Partners VII, which closed in 2012 at $13.3 billion. At the time BREP VII was the largest private equity real estate fund yet raised; it has delivered an IRR of 27% as of Dec. 31, 2014.

Blackstone will make investments via BREP VIII across the globe but will focus on the US, the WSJ reported. The firm reportedly plans to begin deploying the fund within the next month.

Two of the hotels Blackstone has agreed to buy from Paulson came under the control of a Paulson-led group after Morgan Stanley's real estate fund defaulted on debt in 2011, Bloomberg Business reported Monday evening. They're properties flying the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton flags in Orlando; Blackstone is also buying a JW Marriott in Scottsdale, AZ from Paulson. Together, the three properties comprise 470,000 square feet and approximately 2,500 keys.

Orlando and Scottsdale are both resort areas that draw strong convention business, and RevPAR in both markets is higher than the US average. Citing data from STR Inc., Bloomberg reported that for the first two months of 2015, RevPAR in Orlando averaged $93.20 per room, while reaching $185.14 in Scottsdale. The nationwide average for that period was $66.83.