World Market Center in downtown Las Vegas being sold

World Market Center, the sprawling furniture expo hall in downtown Las Vegas, is being sold.

The Blackstone Group in New York has reached a deal to buy its owner and operator, International Market Centers, the companies announced Thursday.

Owned by investment firms Bain Capital and Oaktree Capital Management, International Market operates 12.2 million square feet of home-furnishings showroom space in Las Vegas and High Point, North Carolina.

Terms of the sale were not disclosed. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter, according to the announcement.

World Market Center, on Grand Central Parkway at Bonneville Avenue, opened in 2005 and now spans 5.4 million square feet.

It was developed by the Related Cos. and partners Jack Kashani and Shawn Samson. The project ran into financial problems, and Bain and Oaktree took over in 2011, according to reports.

Blackstone, meanwhile, has been gobbling up real estate around the valley in the past several years.

It bought hundreds of homes to turn into rentals, as well as the 68-acre Hughes Center office park in 2013. It also bought The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, a 3,000-room hotel on the Strip, in 2014 and three suburban apartment complexes, comprising 972 units, in May.

Contact Eli Segall at esegall@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0342. Follow @eli_segall on Twitter.