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atie Keenan has been named chief executive of Blackstone’s $53 billion real‑estate income trust, BREIT, following the tragic death of former CEO Wesley LePatner. At 41, Keenan will also take charge of the firm’s “core‑plus” real‑estate segment, which manages the lower‑risk, lower‑return portion of Blackstone’s $325 billion property portfolio. She currently heads Blackstone Mortgage Trust, the publicly traded commercial‑real‑estate‑lending arm, and co‑leads its $77 billion debt business; Tim Johnson will replace her in that role.
Keenan, who joined Blackstone in 2012 and was close to LePatner, described the appointment as “bittersweet,” adding that she intends to honor his legacy. LePatner, 43, was fatally shot in a July shooting at Blackstone’s Park Avenue headquarters, where the gunman also killed three others before taking his own life. The attacker had reportedly targeted the NFL, another tenant in the building.
BREIT, launched in 2017, quickly became Blackstone’s largest fund, amassing assets such as data centers, e‑commerce warehouses and multifamily housing during a period of historically low rates. Rising interest rates and falling property values began to erode performance in 2022, prompting many investors to pull out. Over the past three years, the fund has returned only 1.7 % annually, far below its 9.2 % lifetime return.
Executives now believe the market is stabilizing. Lower construction costs have tightened supply, debt financing has loosened, and cash flows are improving across asset classes. BREIT has posted eight consecutive months of gains and raised $1.1 billion in the second quarter—its strongest fundraising haul in more than two years—as withdrawal requests eased. Nadeem Meghji, Blackstone’s global real‑estate co‑head, said the fund performed as designed through the volatile period and that Keenan is the right person to guide it into the next growth phase.
LePatner had led Blackstone’s core‑plus business and joined the firm in 2014 after a decade at Goldman Sachs’ real‑estate division.
