The Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund is to hire new managers for a $75m (€68.6m) investment strategy.
The US pension fund approved a Request for Proposal to hire emerging managers.
It is only considering minorities, women or people with disability.
The pension fund is looking at both a customised, separate account relationship and a fund with a manager-of-managers investment strategy.
When it began the search in January, the pension fund indicated that at least $50m (€45.6m) could be allocated to managers for a combination of traditional and property sector-specific strategies.
Illinois Municipal has no geographic targets for the search.
Capital could be invested in the US or globally if the manager is a citizen or lawful permanent US resident.
Responses to the search are due by 12 August, with a final decision to be made by year-end.
Earlier this year, Illinois added up to $150m of new investments in real estate.
It then hired four managers for a value-add fund manager search, allocating $200m.
