Blackstone Buys Hughes Center in $347M Deal

By Alex Girda, Associate Editor

In one of Las Vegas’ largest recent trades, an affiliate of the Blackstone Group has acquired the 1.5 million-square-foot Hughes Center for $347 million.

The seller, Crescent Real Estate Holdings, is a Wall Street investment firm owned by Barclay Capital and Goff Capital Partners, according to VegasINC.com.

Located on Howard Hughes Parkway between Flamingo Road and Sands Avenue, Hughes Center offers 1.4 million square feet of office space. Equity Office, a Blackstone company, will oversee management and leasing for the property. Colliers International will stay on as leasing agent.

Hughes Center’s tenant roster features Gordon Silver, Ameristar, Wells Fargo Bank, Venetian, Boyd Gaming, Snell & Wilmer, and Lewis and Roca L.L.P. Restaurants include restaurants Del Frisco’s, Lawry’s Prime Rib, Fogo de Chao, Bahama Breeze, Gordon Biersch Brewery and McCormick & Schmick. A new Starbucks is under construction.

The hospitality facility at the office park is the Residence Inn Las Vegas Hughes Center (pictured), a Marriott-operated extended stay hotel offering 256 suites and 1,500 square feet of meeting space. The office component has an occupancy rate of around 78 percent, but the property is still recovering from the recession. As VegasINC reported, vacancy was 2.3 percent when Crescent acquired the property a decade ago.

HFF, led by the team of Executive Managing Director Mark Gibson, Executive Managing Director Scott Galloway and Senior Managing Director Dan Cashdan, represented the seller. Blackstone was self-represented.

Image courtesy of marriott.com