Blackstone is the largest commercial landlord in history. Over the past two decades, it has taken control of apartment blocks, student housing, railway arches, film studios, offices, logistics warehouses and datacentres. 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 Spanx, have ever matched with someone on Bumble, stayed in a Hilton hotel or a Cent er Parcs resort, visited Legoland, the London Dungeon or a relative at a Southern Cross care home, you have encountered a company that forms, or recently formed, part of the Blackstone empire.
Blackstone’s New York headquarters are in a skyscraper on Park Avenue. Every Monday, the firm’s founder Steve Schwarzman and chief operating officer…