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When Blackstone buys a building – say, an office block in London – employees are dispatched to “walk the asset”, considering its size and location, ceiling height, ventilation, natural light, transport links, the number of lunch spots nearby, how many students, creatives and computer programmers are moving to the area and what other businesses are located there.
当黑石集团买下一栋大楼，比方说，位于伦敦的一栋写字楼时，员工会被派去“过资产”，考虑的因素包括写字楼的大小和位置、天花板高度、通风、自然光、交通连接、附近午餐地点的数量、有多少学生、创意人士和计算机程序员正在搬到该地区，以及那里还有什么其他企业。
After employees have visited the site and combed through its paperwork, they gather with colleagues from the firm’s American, European and Asian offices to review and “socialise” the proposed deal.
在员工参观完现场并梳理好文件后，他们会与公司美国、欧洲和亚洲办事处的同事们聚在一起，对这个拟议的交易进行审查并“交流意见”。
The final step is to secure approval from the real estate investment committee at its Monday meeting.
最后一步是确保在周一的会议上获得房地产投资委员会的批准。
For major acquisitions, senior leaders will fly in from New York to walk the space if they are not yet convinced by its commercial appeal.
对于重大收购，如果高层领导还无法被其商业吸引力说服，他们将从纽约飞到现场参观。
This methodical, even cautious, approach to investing has yielded big rewards.
这种有条不紊、甚至是谨慎的投资方式已经产生了巨大的回报。
Today, the name of Blackstone’s founder can be seen on universities and public institutions across the US.
如今，黑石集团创始人的名字出现在美国各地的大学和公共机构上。
There is a Stephen Schwarzman building at the New York Public Library, a Schwarzman centre at Yale University and the Schwarzman College of Computing in Massachusetts.
纽约公共图书馆有一座苏世民大楼，耶鲁大学有一个苏世民中心，马萨诸塞州有一个苏世民计算机学院。
Soon, the University of Oxford will open the Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities, funded by the largest single donation it has ever received.
不久，牛津大学将开设苏世民人文中心，这是牛津大学收到的最大一笔捐款。
Yet, beyond the inscription of its founder’s name into buildings and brass plaques, Blackstone is shaping the cities around us in a more profound way.
然而，除了把创始人的名字刻在建筑物和黄铜牌匾上之外，黑石集团正在以一种更深刻的方式塑造我们周围的城市。
The company has acquired houses and apartments at a voracious speed in cities around the world.
该公司在世界各地的城市以惊人的速度收购着住房和公寓。
Like any company, Blackstone is focused on creating returns for its investors.
与任何一家公司一样，黑石集团专注于为投资者创造回报。
Residents in some Blackstone properties have accused it of raising rents while reducing overheads, and the company has even been blamed – by an adviser to the United Nations – of helping to fuel the global housing crisis.
一些住着黑石集团房产的居民指责其在降低日常管理费用的同时提高了租金，联合国的一位顾问甚至指责该公司助长了全球住房危机。
(Blackstone vehemently denies these accusations and has previously said that the UN adviser’s findings included “numerous false claims, significant factual errors and inaccurate conclusions”.)
(黑石集团极力否认这些指控，此前曾表示，这位联合国顾问的调查结果包含“大量虚假声明、重大事实错误以及不准确的结论”。)
In most places where it began to buy up residential properties, Blackstone faced little opposition from governments or politicians.
在收购住宅地产的大多数地方，黑石集团几乎没有遭到政府或政界人士的反对。
That is, until it arrived in a small Scandinavian country, which, when confronted with the indifferent force of this global real estate company, decided Blackstone had gone too far.
直到黑石集团来到斯堪的纳维亚的一个小国，当面对这家全球房地产公司的冷漠力量时，这个国家认为黑石集团做得太过分了。
“Blackstone was like a boxer walking into a heavy right-hand hook to the jaw,” Curt Liliegreen, a Danish housing economist, told me.
“黑石集团就像一个拳击手，将右勾拳重重地打在了下巴上，”丹麦住房经济学家科特·利里格林告诉我。
“They didn’t see it coming. They picked totally the wrong place.”
“他们没有预见到这会发生。他们完全选错了地方。”
