signage is seen outside the blackstone group headquarters in manhattan new york us november 12 2021 reutersandrew kelly reuters  simpson thacher  bartlett is advising blackstone inc’s real estate investing arm on its roughly 58 billion acquisition of rental apartment owner preferred apartment communities which has turned to king  spalding and vinson  elkins for guidance on the deal atlantabased preferred apartment communities which operates multifamily properties and invests in shopping centers said on wednesday that it had inked the deal with blackstone real estate income trust inc the transaction comes as a strong economic recovery ultralow interest rates and continued demand for bigger homes have driven up us home prices simpson thacher mergers and acquisitions partners brian stadler and matthew rogers and real estate partner erik quarfordt are guiding the blackstone unit stadler rogers and quarfordt most recently worked on the blackstone arm’s 37 billion planned purchase of apartment owner resource reit inc according to a january firm press release the simpson thacher attorneys have also individually worked on at least four other multibillion dollar blackstone takeprivate deals in the past year according to firm statements from 2022 and 2021 the transactions include blackstones 36 billion acquisition of apartment owner bluerock residential growth reit inc the 31 billion purchase of distribution and logistics property owner wpt industrial real estate investment trust the 10 billion buy of data center operator qts realty trust and the 6 billion acquisition of hotel owner extended stay america inc king  spalding corporate finance and investments partners spencer johnson tony rothermel and john anderson as well as tax partner wayne pressgrove represented preferred apartment communities king  spalding previously advised the company on its sale of office properties to north carolinaheadquartered real estate investment trust highwoods properties inc according to an april 2021 firm statement vinson  elkins said in a statement that corporate partners gregory cope and stephen gill are also advising preferred apartment communities