Blackstone real estate's Bill Stein retiring after almost 30 years

By Dawn Lim

Blackstone Inc. real estate veteran Bill Stein, who played a role in shaping big investments across its $335 billion business, is retiring after nearly three decades at the firm.  
 

Stein, a senior managing director, was involved in signature Blackstone holdings including Hilton Worldwide, casino resort Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas and single-family home landlord Invitation Homes. He has sat on boards of companies such as Great Wolf Lodge and Extended Stay America.  

Stein scaled back his responsibilities over the years. After running asset management at the real estate arm, Stein stepped back from that role in 2018. That group is responsible for overseeing all investments within the portfolio. That year, asset management co-head Gio Cutaia was promoted to become sole head of that function. More recently, Stein has been discussing his departure.

“It has been an incredible honor to work with Bill and call him a friend for nearly 30 years,” Blackstone President Jon Gray, the firm’s former real estate chief, said in a statement. “Everyone at Blackstone is tremendously grateful for his immense contributions.” 

Blackstone’s property arm has morphed over the years to become the roughly $1.1 trillion firm’s biggest business by assets.  

This year, Nadeem Meghji, head of real estate Americas since 2017, was elevated to co-head of real estate alongside Kathleen McCarthy, the business co-head since 2018.  

Frank Cohen — chairman of core-plus real estate, which seeks to generate steady returns with long-term bets — is also retiring from Blackstone. He will step down as chief executive of Blackstone’s real estate fund for wealthy individuals, Blackstone Real Estate Investment Trust, at the start of 2025. 

Read more: Blackstone’s BREIT Names Wesley LePatner CEO, Succeeding Cohen

Wesley LePatner, who heads core-plus real estate and joined Blackstone in 2014, is taking on that role at BREIT.