The Garner Towne Square mall has been bought for $19.374 million by the private equity firm Blackstone, according to Wake County property records.

The deal was part of a 15-property portfolio sale that Regency Centers announced with Blackstone last month. Blackstone acquired the portfolio for $321 million. It includes 2.1 million square feet of space that was 90 percent leased at the time the deal closed.

Garner Towne Square on Timber Drive was the only North Carolina property in the portfolio. It includes nearly 185,000 square feet of space that was 90 percent leased as of the end of June. The mall’s anchor tenants include Kroger, PetSmart, Office Max, Target and Home Depot.

Regency Centers owns more than a dozen properties in the Triangle, including Cameron Village in Raleigh, Erwin Square in Durham and Shoppes of Kildaire in Cary.

Blackstone Entrepreneurs Network, a new support network financed by the private equity giant, has named Robert Creeden to be its first executive director.

Creeden is founder and managing partner of Boston-based Partners Innovation Fund. 

The Blackstone Entrepreneurs Network was announced in April.

It is a partnership between the company and the Triangle's four major universities -- Duke University, North Carolina Central University, North Carolina State University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill -- as well as the Council for Entrepreneurial Development.

Financed with $3.6 million from Blackstone's charitable foundation, it is designed to provide entrepreneurs with the support they need to turn their ideas into fast-growing companies.

Stephen A. Schwarzman, CEO and co-founder of private equity firm The Blackstone Group, will be in Durham on Monday to announce a new charitable initiative designed to further entrepreneurship.

Schwarzman will be joined by a bevy of state politicians and university officials, including Gov. Bev Perdue, Senator Kay Hagan, Duke University President Richard Brodhead, N.C. Central University Chancellor Charlie Nelms, North Carolina State University Chancellor Randy Woodson and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Chancellor Holden Thorp.

The event is being held on the American Tobacco Campus at 11 a.m.

Blackstone's charitable foundation earlier launched a $50 million entrepreneurship initiative, called LaunchPad, that is working with universities to develop programs for aspiring entrepreneurs. 

The foundation hopes to make LaunchPad a national model for developing entrepreneurship through higher education.

It has committed to expanding the number of LaunchPads in the U.S. over the next five years.