UNITED STATES - San Diego City Employees' Retirement System has chosen to retain The Townsend Group remain as its real estate consultant.

Courtland Partners and Callan Associates were pipped in the final decision-making meeting on 16 October.

Townsend's current contact was set to expire in November but has now been extended for a further three years while officials have the option to retain the consultant for an additional two one-year extensions.

Townsend assisted San Diego in its purchase of another property to its portfolio in the second quarter of this year: Caballero Industrial II in Buena Park, California, in an all-cash $16.1m (€12.6m) transaction from Invesco Real Estate.

This core asset was 100% occupied at the time the deal was completed and had an initial cap rate of 5.56%, based on the current net operating income in the asset.

San Diego City officials anticipate trading will be quiet over the coming months as the pension fund was over-allocated to real estate by the end of June.

The scheme had invested $489m in the asset class, or 10.5% of its total plan assets, by that time, while it still has another $157m of unfunded commitments - equivalent to another 3.4% to real estate.

The $4.7bn fund's targeted allocation to real estate is 11% or $513m.

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