With office buildings in hot demand as investment vehicles, Blackstone Group’s $23 billion buyout of Equity Office Properties — the owner of the biggest portfolio of U.S. office buildings — will be felt throughout the real-estate sector. It also stands a good chance, say some exports, of boosting already-record prices.

The deal, said The Wall Street Journal, will likely put Blackstone in position to demand prices on its individual buildings high enough to make the private-equity firm’s bid pay off.

It also seals Blackstone’s reputation as one of the most powerful investors on Wall Street, the newspaper added.

Blackstone beat out rival bidder Vornado Realty Trust with a final price of $55.50 a share which was a 14.4 percent increase from its original bid of $48.50 in November. The increase, said The Wall Street Journal, "reflects optimism that commercial-property demand will remain torrid.”

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Factoring in stock options and other payments, Equity Office founder and Chairman Sam Zell stands to make more than $800 million from the sale, according to proxy statement.

Sources said Vornado’s final $56 dollar-a-share bid was 50-cents higher than Blackstone’s, but the Equity Office board considered Blackstone’s offer superior to Vornado’s, which was 45 percent stock.

The Blackstone/Equity Office deal closes the end of the week, but Blackstone reportedly already has agreed to sell — or is close to lining up buyers for — a good size piece of Equity Office’s holdings, including most of its prime Manhattan portfolio. Equity Office’s properties in New York are concentrated in midtown Manhattan, considered the most expensive office market in the U.S. Prices tend to be higher in midtown, where several buildings sold for more than $1,000 a square foot last year.

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