REAL ESTATE - The $100bn (€77.8bn) Teacher Retirement System of Texas has decided to place $400m of its real estate allocation into three commingled funds.

The Austin-based fund chose to invest into two opportunity funds.

It has made a $100m investment into Walton Street Real Estate Fund V and put $150m into the Blackstone Real Estate Fund V.

Texas Teachers made it first investment in an urban real estate strategy with a $150m investment into the CIM Urban REIT.

The scheme made this decisions at its board meeting a couple of weeks ago, aided by consultant Townsend.

Townsend principal Rob Kochis said: “We like that the CIM fund gives our client an exposure to urban real estate with more core kind of strategy.

“The fund is buying stabilized properties in urban locations. This is unique for an urban play. Most of the urban commingled funds have a redevelopment or development strategy.”

CIM hopes to raise $2bn of equity for the fund. The final close of the fund will be at the end of June.

Texas Teachers has now committed to five commingled funds since it started a new real estate program about a year and a half ago. These commitments involved a total of $575m.

Texas Teachers still has a long way to go before it reaches its target 3% - or $3bn real estate allocation.