NORTH AMERICA – The California State Teachers Retirement System (CalSTRS) has more than tripled its real estate investment in the second quarter.
The pension fund earmarked $620m (€465m) for the asset class in Q2 after investing $200m over the first quarter.
Two of the investments were with PCCP to build core assets.
CalSTRS made a $198m equity investment in the joint venture PacificCal PC Core, with PCCP investing $2m.
The other joint venture, PacificCal IV, has a total equity investment of $100m, with $98m coming from CalSTRS.
CalSTRS invested $200m of equity into the LCOR Project Platform joint venture, managed by GI Partners.
The JV aims to invest in the development, renovation and redevelopment of mixed-use projects that have residential and retail components.
The venture has a blended strategy to invest in the eastern US in core, value-added and opportunistic risk categories.
The pension fund has also made an additional $75m investment into the ResCal JV with Resmark. CalSTRS has now put a total of $200m of equity into the venture.
The strategy is to make equity investments in housing and land transactions, including investments in for-sale housing (in partnerships with homebuilders), and placing capital in residential land acquisitions to develop and sell finished lots to builders.
In other news, the Nebraska Investment Council has made its first-ever investment in a debt fund for its real estate portfolio – a $20m allocation into the Torchlight Debt Opportunity Fund IV.
Fund IV is a commingled fund managed by Torchlight Investors. It will invest in debt backed by real estate only in the US, including mezzanine, CMBS, B-notes and distressed mortgages.
The total capital raise is projected to be around $1bn.
The fund manager will be making a co-investment of as much as $10m.
Jeff States, state investment officer, said: "Investing in a debt fund is a good diversifier for our real estate portfolio that will [produce] attractive investment returns."
