NORTH AMERICA – The Texas Municipal Retirement System is planning to place as much as $900m (€696m) into real estate over the next 12 months.
The first part of this was $300m that was allocated to its four real estate managers, according to a pension fund document.
Two of the allocations were made with Harrison Street Real Estate Capital.
Texas Municipal allocated $100m to the Harrison Street Securities entity for a REIT investment mandate.
The other was $50m into the Harrison Street Core Property Fund, which invests in "stabilised" properties such as student and senior housing, medical office, storage and life science buildings.
The pension fund also made a $100m commitment to the Mesa West Core Lending Fund, which focuses on debt investments.
The fund provides first mortgages collateralised by office, apartments, industrial, retail and hotel properties.
The final new commitment was $50m into the Smart Markets Core Fund managed by Stockbridge Capital Group.
The Smart Markets Core is a core investment fund that focuses on small to medium-sized properties in the US.
Texas Municipal is now looking to make as much as $600m of commitments to real estate during the 2013 calendar year, according to a fund document.
Around half of the capital will be invested in core strategies.
Another $200m is to be invested in either value added or opportunistic commingled funds.
The final investment strategies would be in co-investments – a sector the pension fund has not pursued previously and for which it must get board approval.
Texas Municipal will work on placing the capital into real estate through its real estate consultant, Cleveland-based ORG Portfolio Management.
