Private equity group Blackstone plans to sell the Washington portfolio held by Equity Office Properties, the Washington Post has reported three days after Blackstone closed the acquisition of the largest office manager in the US for a record $39 bn (EUR 30 bn) last week.

Private equity group Blackstone plans to sell the Washington portfolio held by Equity Office Properties, the Washington Post has reported three days after Blackstone closed the acquisition of the largest office manager in the US for a record $39 bn (EUR 30 bn) last week.

The newspaper cited an unnamed source as saying Blackstone has agreed to sell its properties in the Seattle and Washington D.C. areas to Beacon Capital Partners, a Boston fund, for $6.5 bn. Beacon Capital Partners declined to comment.

EOP has a portfolio of 557,00 m2 of office space in Washington, including part of Reston Town Center, the Polk & Taylor buildings in Crystal City, the Army & Navy Club building and Market Square, a 63,000 m2 office building on Pennsylvania Avenue. Macklowe Properties has already agreed to pay $7 bn for eight Manhattan skyscrapers owned by EOP in New York. Blackstone, the Washington Post said, is looking to sell parts of the EOP portfolio in Oregon and California.

The sell-offs are required to reduce the debt acquired by Blackstone when it bought EOP in the largest leveraged buyout in history.