Blackstone announced today that one of its real estate funds will buy a 65% stake in Great Wolf Resorts, Inc., which is currently controlled by Centerbridge Partners, the firm co-headed by one-time Blackstone partner Mark Gallogly.
Gallogly, who w
as a rising star at Blackstone in the late 1990s, pondered setting up his own shop in 1999, but Steve Schwarzman enticed him to stay by agreeing to raise a $2 billion, dedicated media and telecommunications fund that Gallogly would lead. Gallogly eventually left in 2005 to form Centerbridge. (See King of Capital, pp. 152-157, 192-193.)
Centerbridge set out to be a firm that could do well across business cycles, leading conventional buyouts in good times and making turnaround and distressed investments in downturns. It formed a real estate arm in 2017.
King of Capital 