Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Management Board (Mass PRIM) is considering selling more than $500m (€444m) of US real estate formerly managed by TA Realty.

The pension fund is evaluating which assets to keep from a $1.1bn portfolio it transferred from TA Realty to AEW Capital Management last year.

Mass PRIM told IPE Real Estate that 14 of 25 assets, worth approximately €600m, will be retained.

The porftolio will be managed by AEW permanently. AEW had been hired to manage the assets originally on an interim basis.

One of the assets, Sugerloaf Apartments in Atlanta, was sold last year for $51.3m. Five more assets, worth €230m, are expected to be sold.

Another five properties, valued at $300m, are still being evaluated by the pension fund.

It is not known what Mass PRIM will do the sale proceeds, although the capital could be made available to the pension fund’s other real estate separate account managers: Invesco Real Estate, JP Morgan Asset Management and LaSalle Investment Management. 

Mass PRIM brought an end to the $1.1bn separate account managed by TA Realty last year, partly because of a shift in the pension fund’s investment strategy, but also due to concerns over underperformance and staff turnover.

Much of the portfolio managed by TA Realty held smaller assets in secondary markets. Mass PRIM is now looking to focus on larger properties in primary markets.