Updated, 8:37 p.m. | The Blackstone Group has agreed to sell five office properties in the Boston area for $2.1 billion, disposing of part of a sprawling real estate portfolio it bought before the financial crisis, a person briefed on the matter said on Sunday.
The buyers are led by a Canadian real estate investment firm, the Oxford Properties Group, said the person, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the deal. It is Blackstone’s largest sale of office space in the United States since the crisis.
Blackstone, a giant private equity firm, acquired the Boston properties when it bought Equity Office Properties Trust, a landlord built by the Chicago real estate magnate Samuel Zell, for $39 billion in 2007. Blackstone quickly sold hundreds of the properties to buyers including the real estate mogul Harry B. Macklowe.
The commercial real estate market has recovered since the downturn wreaked havoc on the Equity Office properties and created big losses for Mr. Macklowe and others. Blackstone kept properties including the towers in Boston.
Blackstone, whose real estate business is led by Jonathan D. Gray, plunged into the residential real estate market after the downturn, buying distressed properties to rent them out. More recently, it has been selling properties including commercial holdings.
The Boston deal includes four properties in the downtown area and one across the Charles River in Cambridge. Oxford, which declined to comment on the deal, is working with the asset management arm of JPMorgan Chase to buy three of the buildings.
The sale was reported earlier by The Wall Street Journal.
Blackstone is also selling its ownership stake in another Boston building in the portfolio, Rowes Wharf, to Morgan Stanley, which is its partner in the building.