Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund (Oregon PERF) is entering into a $250m (€233m) joint venture to invest in apartments in the US.
The pension fund will own 90% of the joint venture while residential developer and operator General Investment & Development Companies (GID) will own the remainder, according to a board meeting document.
GID, which was unable to comment, already manages a €530m portfolio of 15 properties for Oregon PERF.
“They have been a manager with us since 2004,” said Anthony Breault, senior real estate investment officer for the Oregon State Treasury, which oversees investments for the pension fund.
“We feel very good about our existing relationship with GID and they have a very strong management team that has had very little turnover at the partnership level.”
The new joint venture, called the Windsor Columbia Realty Fund, will invest in core apartments mostly in major markets along the east and west coasts of the US.
The number of assets owned are likely to be between six and 10. Most will come through acquisitions of existing assets, although GID can invest up to 15% in development projects.
Oregon PERF will reinvest capital from distributions of assets into new transactions.
The amount of leverage placed on the new capital for the Realty Fund is 45%.
The long-range goal is to beat NCREIF ODCE, an index of the core commercial real estate market in the US, by 50bps. GID has full investment discretion.
Oregon PERF has now made two commitments to core real estate as it looks to grow its exposure.
Last year, it sought to place $300m into the JP Morgan Strategic Property Fund, an open-ended vehicle in the NCREIF ODCE index.
The pension fund is planning to invest a further $500m to $600m in three to four more core open-ended funds this year.
