NEW YORK CITY—The Blackstone Group hascompleted its $6-billion acquisition of Chicago-basedStrategic Hotels & Resorts Inc., part of aseries of privatizations the REIT sector has seenin 2015. The acquisition through Blackstone Real EstatePartners VIII LP, which closed Friday ahead of anoriginally projected first-quarter 2016 completion, is also thelatest in a long line of lodging industry investments byBlackstone, as well as one of a number of large-scale transactionsin the sector during the past year.

GlobeSt.com first reported on the deal this past September,three weeks after Strategic Hotels announced that it was exploringa possible sale. Blackstone is acquiring all outstanding shares ofcommon stock of the hotel REIT for $14.25 per share in cash, andall of the outstanding membership units of its Strategic HotelsFunding LLC subsidiary for $14.25 per unit in cash. StrategicHotels' common shares, which traded under the BEEsymbol, have ceased trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

When the sale was first announced, TylerHenritze, co-head of US acquisitions for Blackstone RealEstate, commented, "As long-term investors in the lodging industry,we remain confident in the fundamentals of the sector despiterecent market volatility." The New York City-based alternativeassets giant has taken Hilton and La Quinta private over the pastdecade, among its other investments in the sector.