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Founder / Operator·Data Centers

Nicholas Pell

Chief Executive Officer and President at Blackstone Digital Infrastructure Trust

New York, NY

NP
Why they matter

He runs the acquisition strategy for Blackstone's newly IPO'd, $1.75B data-center REIT and has twice been the operator whose company Blackstone itself acquired.

Background

Nicholas L. Pell is CEO and President of Blackstone Digital Infrastructure Trust (NYSE: BXDC), a data-center-focused REIT Blackstone launched and took public in May 2026. He joined Blackstone in 2026 after leading Link Logistics (Blackstone's ~400M-square-foot U.S. industrial platform) as President and Chief Investment Officer since 2019, and before that served as Chief Investment Officer of Gramercy Property Trust, which Blackstone acquired for $7.6 billion in 2018. He holds a BA in Economics from Duke University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Notable deals

  • 2026
    Appointed CEO and President of Blackstone Digital Infrastructure Trust (BXDC), Blackstone's newly formed data center REIT
  • 2026
    Led BXDC's $1.75 billion IPO on the NYSE, one of the largest listed vehicles dedicated to stabilized hyperscale data center assets
  • 2018
    Served as Chief Investment Officer of Gramercy Property Trust through its $7.6 billion all-cash sale to Blackstone

Call-prep brief

Nicholas Pell — Blackstone Digital Infrastructure Trust (BXDC)

Background

  • CEO/President of BXDC since May 2026; senior managing director, Blackstone Real Estate.
  • Prior: President & CIO of Link Logistics (2019–2026), Blackstone's ~400M sq ft U.S. industrial platform.
  • Before that: CIO of Gramercy Property Trust (2016–2019), which Blackstone bought for $7.6B in 2018 — meaning Pell has now been the target-side executive Blackstone acquired *and* the buy-side executive running a Blackstone vehicle.
  • Duke BA (Economics), Harvard MBA. Earlier career: W.P. Carey, Sony Pictures business development, J.P. Morgan analyst.

Current focus

  • Deploying BXDC's ~$1.75-2B IPO proceeds into newly-constructed, stabilized, hyperscale-leased data centers in Tier 1 North American markets.
  • Building a public-market track record for a first-of-its-kind listed pure-play stabilized-colocation REIT.

What he cares about

  • Long-term, investment-grade tenant leases (de-risked, income-generating assets over development risk).
  • Portfolio quality and capital discipline — his industrial background is about disposition/capital deployment rigor, not just growth.

Sensitivities

  • Very new to data centers/digital infrastructure specifically (career is industrial/office real estate) — avoid assuming deep technical infra background.
  • BXDC is a young public vehicle under investor scrutiny; he may be guarded on forward guidance or specific asset pipeline.

Questions to ask

  1. How is BXDC underwriting hyperscale tenant credit risk vs. traditional industrial tenant risk he's used to?
  2. What's the pipeline mix between M&A of existing stabilized assets vs. forward-funding new construction?
  3. How does his industrial/logistics lens (last-mile, tenant demand cycles) translate to site selection for data centers (power, fiber, land)?

Outreach draft

Subject
Data center colocation strategy — quick call?
Hi Nick, Congratulations on BXDC's launch and the recent IPO — building a pure-play stabilized data center vehicle at that scale is a notable bet on the hyperscale leasing thesis. We're doing diligence in the data center colocation space and would value your perspective, particularly given your background moving from industrial real estate capital deployment at Link Logistics into digital infrastructure. We're especially interested in how you're thinking about tenant credit risk, site selection criteria, and build-vs-buy tradeoffs in the current market. Would you have 20-30 minutes in the next couple of weeks for a call? Happy to work around your schedule. Best, [Your Name]

Linked companies

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