Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Management Board is planning to be an active seller in 2017, expecting $573m (€537m) in sales from its existing separate accounts and fund portfolios.

The sales would include separate account assets managed by Invesco Real Estate, JP Morgan Asset Management, AEW Capital Management and fund properties managed by DivcoWest and Carlyle.

The sales activity would be a significant increase from 2016 when property sales totalled $258m. This involved five separate account assets, with three properties sold by AEW and two by Invesco.

The US pension fund also plans to invest $200m in direct real estate, according to a board meeting document.

Most of the capital will be made available to its separate account managers, Invesco Real Estate, JP Morgan Asset Management, AEW Capital Management and LaSalle Investment Management.

Most of the managers have a core investment strategy focused on buying office, industrial, retail and apartment assets.

Mass PRIM is also evaluating its office investment strategy and its current real estate investment trust (REIT) managers.

The pension fund has active relationships with Brookfield Investment Management and Presima as its REIT managers and has BlackRock and Timbercreek Asset Management as back-up REIT managers.

Mass PRIM closed four deals in 2016 worth $214m, including a $112m ground-lease deal in Santa Clara, California in December. The deal was Mass PRIM’s first without a manager.

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