NORTH AMERICA – The Indiana Public Retirement System has approved a $75m (€57m) investment into the Stockbridge Smart Markets fund, a core open-ended fund managed by Stockbridge Capital Group

The fund will target smart employment centres in the US that are home to major universities and highly educated workforces.

Most of its transactions for the fund will range between $10m and $50m, investing in a combination of apartments, industrial, retail, office and mixed-use assets.

Indiana PRS has a real estate portfolio valued at $936m, as of the end of October 2012. 

The asset class makes up 4.5% of its $21bn of total plan assets. 

The scheme has a targeted allocation for real estate of 7.5%.

In other news, the Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund has sold the last retail property it owns with separate account manager Clarion Partners – the 370,510 square foot Waterside Shops in Naples, Florida. 

The pension fund had owned a 50% interest in the property, which it sold for $155m to Taubman Centers and The Forbes Company.

Oregon PERF had owned its share of the property since 1994. 

Clarion will re-invest the proceeds from the sale in core office buildings, targeting New York, Seattle, Los Angeles and Washington, DC.