The Globe and Mail reports in its Saturday edition that Blackstone, one of the world's largest real estate investors, is jumping into the Toronto apartment market by bidding $3.5-billion for rental property owner Tricon Residential (all figures U.S.). The Globe's Andrew Willis writes that on Friday, New York-based Blackstone announced a friendly takeover offer for Tricon, which has $2.5-billion of apartment buildings under development in Toronto and plans to spend $1-billion on single-family homes in the U.S. Sun Belt. Founded in 1988, Tricon is one of Toronto's largest rental apartment owners, with plans to build six downtown developments on transit routes in the next three to five years. The company also holds 37,000 single-family homes in cities such as Atlanta, Charlotte, Dallas, Tampa and Phoenix. Tricon faced challenges raising the money needed to develop new properties, along with pressure to improve financial performance from an activist investor. Blackstone, which recently raised a $30.4-billion real estate fund, said if its takeover bid is successful, Tricon will speed construction of apartment buildings in Toronto. In recent years, Blackstone made a series of investments in U.S. rental properties.