REAL ESTATE – The $9.9bn (€7.75bn) Public Employee Retirement System of Idaho, or PERSI, was last week involved in the $18m purchase of an office building in Scottsdale, Arizona following the vendor’s liquidation.

PERSI and the California’s Koll Co. bought the Scottsdale Norte block from AmeriVest Properties, a real estate investment trust serving small to medium size office tenants.

PERSI has a 5.3% allocation to real estate, with a portfolio valued at $523m. The Boise-based fund has more than 63,000 active members at 680 employers across the state.

The 79,689-square-foot property sold for approximately $225 per square foot, Denver-based AmeriVest said.

It added: “The estimated cash proceeds of approximately $11.0m, after payoff of the first mortgage, closing costs and adjustments, will be accumulated with other proceeds and available, subject to the expenses and other costs of the Company, for distribution to shareholders under the plan of liquidation approved by AmeriVest shareholders.”

AmeriVest said in February that it was liquidating its assets and distributing the returns to shareholders.

"We are pleased to complete the second of what we expect will be eight scheduled closings for the portfolio," said AmeriVest chief executive Charles Knight.

"Since execution of the purchase and sale agreement in July, AmeriVest and the purchaser have been working diligently with all of our lenders to complete the loan assumptions required for the remaining properties as quickly as possible.”