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The Blackstone Rebellion

How one country took on the world's biggest commercial landlord by Hetty O'Brien.

Blackstone is the largest commercial landlord in history.

Over the past two decades, it has quietly taken control of apartment blocks,

care homes, student housing, railway arches, film studios, offices, hotels, logistics warehouses

and data centres. Blackstone doesn't just own real estate. It owns everything.

Or that's how it can feel when you start to examine its bewildering array of assets.

If you wear spanks, however matched with someone on Bumble,

stayed in a hilt-and-hotel or a centre-park's resort, visited Legoland,

Madame Two Swords, The London Dungeon, or an elderly relative at a southern cross-care home,

you have encountered a company that forms, or has recently formed, part of the Blackstone Empire.

The New York headquarters of Blackstone are located in a skyscraper on Park Avenue.

Every Monday, the firm's founder Steve Swartzman and Chief Operating Officer John Gray

gather with senior partners around a large conference table on the 31st floor

to discuss investment memos sent the previous week by teams in the company's 26 offices in the

US, Europe and Asia. It's here that Blackstone's investment decisions are made.

Last year, the company invested $270 billion, bringing the total value of the assets it manages

...