Alaska Retirement Management Board has voted to terminate Cornerstone Real Estate Advisers as one of its separate account real estate managers, according to a document from the pension fund.

The document states that a proposed staff change in the Cornerstone portfolio management team had caused ARMB to review the separate account.

The pension fund did not name the person involved, and Cornerstone declined to comment.

Cornerstone was managing a core real estate portfolio, valued at $123m (€90.3m) at the end of March. The account started in 2003 with an initial allocation of $100m. Over time it was increased by an additional $75m.

According to the document, the mandate was to make new investments in core real estate. It will also intended for Cornerstone to take over the management of the pension funds’ value-added assets once they had been converted into core.

The latter part of the mandate never transpired because AMRB shifted its value-added strategy away from separate accounts to closed-ended, commingled funds.

As a result, the “growth in the Cornerstone portfolio has never materalised as initially conceived”, it said. “Additionally, Cornerstone used its allocation to invest in large assets so the number of assets in the portfolios has always been small.”

Three parts of the Cornerstone portfolio will be divided up amongst ARMB’s other real estate managers.

An office building in Glendale, California, valued at $76.4m, will be moved into a portfolio managed by UBS Realty Investors. It decided against transferring the management to LaSalle Investment Management because the manager already has a large office asset in its portfolio for ARMB.

An apartment complex in Stamford, Connecticut, valued at $45.3m, is being moved into an account managed by Sentinel Real Estate Corporation, a specialist apartment manager.

The $54m of equity left to be invested by Cornerstone will be transferred to the account managed by LaSalle.

UBS now manages a total portfolio for ARMB valued at $384m, including $41.4m of equity to buy additional properties. LaSalle oversees an existing portfolio for the pension fund valued at $184m, of which $140m is available for new deals. Sentinel runs a portfolio for ARMB valued at $202m with $2.2m left for investment.

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