UNITED STATES - Dallas Police & Fire Pension System is the capital source behind a global capital relationship with its real estate manager CDK Realty Advisors and RED Development, which will invest in retail property.

The pension fund has invested $200m (€147m) as officials believe now is a good time to place capital into retail properties, according to Richard Tettamant, administrator for Dallas Police & Fire

"We have invested with RED in the past on single-property transactions. We have been very impressed by the real estate company's ability to find and invest in quality retail properties in the United States.

"We are aware that retail properties will be affected by where the economy is now. But we think there could be some good investment opportunities going forward," he added.

The capital provided by Dallas Police & Fire will be used in two ways: to finance certain existing RED projects; and to act a 50/50 joint venture partner with the developer in future projects.

Some of the markets where the funding could be used in for the future include Phoenix, Kansas City and Denver and RED believes the capital can be used for standalone lifestyle shopping centres as well as mixed-use projects.

One such example is the $1bn and 1.8 million square feet (0.092903m2) CityScape project in downtown Phoenix which covers three city blocks in terms of space and will accommodate 200,000 sf of retail property, alongside office, residential developments and a hotel.

The first phase of the project is now underway and the second begin in either 2009 or 2010.

The capital from Dallas Police & Fire should allow RED to focus on finding and developing new projects so it does not have to find a different equity source for each individual project it takes on.

RED currently has six new projects under construction and up to seven other projects in various stages of pre-development.

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