Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund (PERF) has approved a $250m (€229m) commitment to the Morgan Stanley Prime Property Fund.
Earlier this year, IPE Real Estate reported that the pension fund planned to place an additional $500m with large, open-ended core real estate funds in the US.
In November of last year, Oregon PERF made a $300m commitment to the JP Morgan Strategic Property Fund.
It now has put capital into two funds that make up 30% of the $174bn NCREIF Open End Diversified Core Equity (ODCE) index. The $20.9bn Prime Property Fund is the fourth largest fund in the index.
Anthony Breault, senior investment officer for real estate at the Oregon Investment Council, said the investment enabled the pension fund to gain access to assets that would otherwise be unavailable.
“The fund does have access to large office buildings in gateway markets and a strong exposure to super regional malls that we would never get a stake in through our current separate account managers,” he said.
The Prime Property Fund also owns two management platforms, including AMLI Residential invests exclusively on its behalf in apartments and makes up 25% of the fund’s portfolio.
The other is Safeguard Storage which invests in self-storage assets, making up 5% of the portfolio.
The next step for Oregon PERF will be to look for two ODCE funds that focus on the industrial sector, allocating $150m to each.
This will enable the pension fund to increase its industrial exposure more quickly than through making individual investments through a separate account.
Oregon PERF has an existing industrial separate account with Lincoln Property Company.
