Top Blackstone real estate executive Henritze to depart

The veteran of the New York-based firm will be one of the few senior managing directors to have left Blackstone's real estate team.

Blackstone will be losing one of its longest-standing senior executives and top dealmakers next month. Tyler Henritze, senior managing director and head of strategic investments for the firm’s real estate Americas business, will be departing after nearly two decades to start his own firm, PERE has learned.

Blackstone has no plans to replace the head of strategic investments role, PERE understands. Henritze’s last day at the firm will be June 30, according to a Bloomberg report published yesterday.

“I am incredibly proud to have been a part of the world class team that built Blackstone real estate into the global leader that it is today,” Henritze said in a statement. “I intend to remain a significant investor and supporter of Blackstone.”

One industry source called Henritze’s departure “a huge loss for Blackstone Real Estate.” Henritze has been one of the firm’s most prolific real estate dealmakers and was involved in over $100 billion of real estate investments across all sectors during his career at Blackstone.

He was a driving force behind some of Blackstone’s highest-profile deals in the US, including the $10 billion privatization of data center giant QTS Realty Trust in August 2021; the $7.6 billion take-private of industrial real estate company Gramercy Property Trust in October 2018; the $6 billion purchase of hotel chain Extended Stay America with Starwood Capital Group in June 2021; and the $5.65 billion sale of the Cosmopolitan of Vegas in May 2022, as well as the original $1.7 billion purchase of the hotel casino resort in December 2014.

“Tyler has been a tremendous contributor to Blackstone Real Estate for 19 years,” a Blackstone spokesperson said in a statement. “He led so many impactful investments across our equity and debt businesses, and has been integral to our successful track record and growth.”

The executive’s departure comes shortly after Blackstone reached a final close for its $30.4 billion Blackstone Real Estate Partners X, the largest-ever closed-end real estate fund. However, Henritze was not a key man for that fund, the Bloomberg story said.

Henritze joined Blackstone in July 2004 as an analyst and became head of Americas real estate acquisitions in January 2015, according to his LinkedIn profile. He was appointed to his current role in January 2022, handing the Americas real estate acquisitions reins to current co-heads Jacob Werner and David Levine. Prior to Blackstone, he was part of the real estate investment banking group at Merrill Lynch.

He is one of the longest-standing senior executives at Blackstone Real Estate, which is the world’s largest commercial landlord with $332 billion in assets under management. Of the 51 senior managing directors on the real estate team, only seven have been at Blackstone longer than Henritze. Among them are Blackstone Real Estate Investment Trust chief executive Frank Cohen, who joined in 1996; head of Asia real estate Christopher Heady, who started in 2000; and head of Asia real estate acquisitions Alan Miyasaki, who joined in 2001.

Senior managing director departures are understood to be a rarity among Blackstone’s real estate team, with only a few having left in recent years. One of the last high-profile exits was that of former real estate co-head Chad Pike, who left in 2020 after a 25-year career at the firm, PERE previously reported.