Feb 18, 2014

Email  |  Twitter In the latest bid to shed its Boston area portfolio, Blackstone Group’s Equity Office Properties Trust has signed a deal to sell 28 State St. in Boston’s Financial District to a New York real estate firm, the Boston Business Journal has learned. A price has not been disclosed. Sources say the Rockefeller Group , which owns and manages 7.7 million square feet of premier office space from New York to Arizona, will buy the 40-story skyscraper which features more than 570,000 square feet of office space and 7,000 square feet of retail at the northeast corner of State and Congress streets. The tower was last assessed at $177 million. Officials from the Rockefeller Group and Equity Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The expected sale is the latest deal for the Blackstone Group; the private equity giant acquired Equity Office from billionaire Sam Zell for about $20 billion in 2006. In January, Shorenstein Properties bought 1-3 Center Plaza to for $307 million. Other recent Blackstone sales in the region have included: Wellesley Office Park for $237 million to Manulife Financial Corp.; New England Executive Park in Burlington to Charles River Investors for $216 million; 25 Mall Road in Burlington to TA Associates for $77.1 million; and Riverside Center at 275 Grove St. in Newton to Hines for $197 million. Additionally, Jamestown, an Atlanta-based real estate and investment firm, purchased a pair of Equity buildings in Cambridge’s Kendall Square for $192.6 million. Blackstone’s 16 remaining Greater Boston office holdings include 60 State St. and 100 Summer St. in Boston’s Financial District, 500 Boylston St., in Boston’s Back Bay, and 125 and 150 Cambridgepark Drive in West Cambridge. Industries: