Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Management Board is to remove TA Realty as the manager of a $1.1bn (€990m) separate account.

The pension fund board voted this week to transfer the management of 25 US properties to interim manager AEW Capital Management.

Board meeting documents reveal four factors behind the decision, including underperformance.

The portfolio had underperformed the NCREIF Property index across all time periods assessed, and the one-year return missed the benchmark by 250bps. TA Realty also ranked in the third quartile versus its peer group across three and five-year periods.

Other factors concerned staff turnover and last year’s takeover of TA Realty by the Rockefeller Group.

TA Realty recently informed Mass PRIM that four senior level staff had left, including two members of the investor’s portfolio management team and two senior acquisition officers.

Documents show Mass PRIM had concerns about the sale of 70% of the management platform to the Rockefeller Group in October 2014 and the uncertainty this created.

Finally, TA Realty’s strategy of buying smaller assets, often located in secondary markets like Dallas, Denver, Tampa, Sacramento and Phoenix, is not in line with Mass PRIM’s existing core investment strategy.

TA Realty was contacted but declined to comment.