GLOBAL - New York State Teachers Retirement System (NYSTRS) has made a $90m (€71.6m) investment in Donahue Schriber Realty Group.

This will be the fifth time the pension fund has invested in the company - their relationship dates back to 1997. 

In that time, NYSTRS has committed more than $305m of equity in Donahue Schriber.

Pension fund officials said Donahue Schriber was an experienced and well-respected shopping centre company with a proven track record. 

NYSTRS provided additional capital to the company to bolster its capital structure and position Donahue Schriber for the economic recovery, officials said.

The pension fund said it expected to achieve a 12% return on its latest investment, structured as a preferred equity share.

Donahue Schriber owns and manages 83 shopping centres - a mixture of neighborhood, community, lifestyle and power shopping centers - located in California, Nevada, Arizona and Oregon.

Meanwhile, NYSTRS has also extended the contracts of its three REIT managers for another year. 

All of the managers invest in REITs and real estate operating companies in the US.

Adelante Capital Management runs a portfolio valued at $212.7m for the pension fund, while RREEF oversees a portfolio of $246.7m.

Cohen & Steers manages two different portfolios for NYSTRS. The income-focused portfolio totals $149.3m, while total-return assets are valued at $359.7m.

The last valuation of the NYSTRS real estate portfolio was roughly $13.7bn.

Through the end of March of 2010, the real estate and mortgages had made up 15% of the pension fund's overall investment portfolio. 

The targeted allocation for real estate and mortgages is 18%.
 

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