mumbai new delhi american private equity fund blackstone has acquired an it special economic zone of 15 million square feet owned by real estate developer 3c group for rs 625 crore two people with direct knowledge of the development said signalling renewed interest by overseas investors in the commercial office space the deal will make blackstone top owner of commercial real estate in the country a blackstone spokesperson declined comment there was no response from 3c the 27acre oxygen sez on the noidagreater noida expressway has about 300000 sq feet of space that is still to be leased and another 500000 sq ft that can be developed the people cited above said blackstone now has 27 million sq ft of commercial space thats operational and 6 million sq ft under construction developers in india that have put in a lot of effort over the past 10 years are now looking for a natural exit said anshul jain chief executive dtz a real estate advisor for funds investing in such core incomeproducing assets is one of the safest options the purchase is one of the rare deals in which the pe fund has gone solo breaking its tradition of buying commercial space jointly with real estate developers it earlier purchased express towers jointly with real estate developer panchshil realty and commercial space in bangalore with embassy group apart from other spaces across the country blackstone is likely to lease out the rest of the space on its own after it takes over the property in the next two weeks the building houses multinational tenants including united health group sapient dell exl and others that are paying rentals averaging rs 35 per sq ft every month et on monday reported that blackstone has begun the process of grouping all its commercial properties in india to list them in a real estate investment trust or reit listing on local bourses is expected to raise around 15 billion or rs 6000 crore through the sale of about 50 to retail and institutional investors for three years blackstone has been aggressively pursuing acquisition of yield rentgenerating office space and has spent almost a billion dollar to scale up its portfolio as per kpmg india has an estimated 350 million sq ft of grade a office space valued at 6570 billion of which about 80100 million sq ft is estimated to be eligible for reits in the next 23 years and valued at about 1520 billion jain said institutionalisation of the commercial space market ensures buildings are maintained well and dont start resembling those in connaught place delhis original central business district has lost its appeal because of badly maintained buildings that were originally sold as individual floors by builders rather than being leased out indias largest listed developer dlf has a rental portfolio of about 29 million sq ft of which office space accounts for 248 million sq ft that is operational and 1 million sq ft under construction according to hdfc securities retail or