Blackstone, Starwood Split on Commercial-Property Market Risks

Two of the world’s biggest property investors are split on the current state of the US commercial real estate cycle.

For Blackstone Inc., with about $600 billion in property globally, the market is finding a floor. A peak in interest rates and a slowdown in the supply of new construction are indicators that real estate in the US is bottoming, according to Kathleen McCarthy, global co-head of real estate at Blackstone.

Kathleen McCarthy at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California, on May 7.

Photographer: Frederic J. Brown/AFP/Getty Images

“There’s bad news coming, but it’s the aftermath of the shipwreck that’s already happened,” McCarthy said at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills.

Starwood ...