NORTH AMERICA – The Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund has approved three new real estate commitments worth as much as $175m (€134.8m).

The three commitments are up to $125m to the AEW Core Property Trust, $25m to the Cornerstone Patriot Fund and $25m to INVESCO Core Real Estate (USA). 

In an email, the pension fund said all of these investments would be funded from public equity investments.

The three funds are core open-ended vehicles that invest in real estate in the US.

Illinois Municipal was an existing investor in the Cornerstone and INVESCO funds. 

The pension fund had committed $75m each to the Patriot and INVESCO funds in October of 2010. 

The Cornerstone fund now has total assets of $2.1bn.  

The commingled fund has no entry queue, and the capital from Illinois Municipal will be placed into the fund straightaway.

Illinois Municipal is looking to increase its real estate allocation from 4.8% to its 6% target. 

In other news, the Tennessee Consolidated Retirement System has made new investments in real estate totaling $79.5m through two separate-account acquisitions.

The pension fund paid $48m to buy the 256-unit Gables Town Lake apartment complex in Austin, Texas. 

This property was acquired through separate-account manager Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management, formerly known as RREEF.

Tennessee has also acquired the 116,000 square foot Center West office building in San Diego for $29.5m. 

The asset was bought through Cornerstone Real Estate Advisers.

The apartment property was bought from Gables Residential in an all-cash transaction.

The property was built in 1996 and is now 95% occupied. 

Deutsche looks for core purchases for Tennessee on a nationwide basis in the US. 

The property types targeted include apartments, retail and industrial.

Tennessee still has more room to grow its real estate portfolio. 

It has now invested $1.8bn in the asset class, representing 5% of the pension fund's total plan assets as of 24 June. 

Its targeted allocation for real estate is 7%.

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