The first leg of the blockbuster $8.9 billion acquisition of Trizec Properties Inc. by a venture between Brookfield Properties Corp. (NYSE: BPO) and The Blackstone Group closed Wednesday with Blackstone acquiring 13 properties for $1.8 billion. The New York private equity investor already has deals in various stages to sell off most of those assets and could walk away with at least a $300 million gain from the property flips. Of course, this is a tried-and-true approach on Wall Street, and Blackstone has executed similar strategies with other take-private REIT deals. It paid $5.6 billion to acquire CarrAmerica earlier this year and is in the process of selling off pieces of that portfolio. For example, Tishman Speyer has agreed to acquire the Washington, D.C.-area assets for about $2.4 billion.