Blackstone Inc. (BX) agreed to pay $3.6 billion for Bluerock Residential Growth REIT Inc. (BRG) in a deal announced Dec. 20 that caps a big year of acquisitions for the New York private equity firm.

Brian Stadler, Matthew Rogers and Krista Miniutti of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP were counsel to longtime client Blackstone on the deal, while Barclays plc and Wells Fargo Securities LLC gave financial advice to the PE firm.

The deal is at least the fifth multibillion-dollar transaction in the sector that Simpson Thacher has done for Blackstone this year. In the largest of the quintet, Stadler and Simpson Thacher’s Anthony Vernace represented Blackstone on its $10 billion purchase of QTS Realty Trust Inc., a provider of data centers in North America and Europe.

Stadler and Rogers advised Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust Inc. when it teamed with Starwood Capital Group Management LLC on the $6 billion purchase of Charlotte, N.C.-based midpriced hotel company Extended Stay America Inc. and its paired-share REIT, ESH Hospitality Inc. Simpson Thacher’s Gregory Ressa and Anthony King worked with BREIT on its $6 billion purchase of Home Partners of America Inc. And Stadler, Rogers and Sasan Mehrara represented BREIT on its $3.1 billion purchase of WPT Industrial Real Estate Investment Trust.

Bluerock tapped David E. Shapiro and Victor Goldfeld of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz for counsel along with Richard “Chip” Cunningham Jr., Kathy Lawrence and C. Clark Warthen at Kaplan Voekler Cunningham & Frank plc. Christopher Mangin Jr. of Vinson & Elkins LLP was tax counsel. Seth Weintrob and Cameron Clough at Morgan Stanley and Roy March and Michael Van Konynenburg at Eastdil Secured LLC gave financial advice to Bluerock along with Jeffrey Horowitz at BofA Securities Inc. Michael Konig is Bluerock’s chief legal officer. Jeff Schiedemeyer at Duff & Phelps was an independent financial adviser to Bluerock’s board.

Blackstone will pay $24.25 in cash per share for Bluerock and will gain 30 multifamily properties with about 11,000 units and a loan book secured by 24 multifamily assets with the acquisition.

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