Washington State Investment to plough $500m into real estate operators

Washington State Investment Board has allocated an extra $500m (€460m) to its long-running strategy of investing in real estate operating companies.

The pension fund told IP Real Estate that it recommended boosting the Principal Enterprise Capital Holdings (PECH) partnership last week.

The decision to invest in the strategy, which is managed by Principal Real Estate Investors, will not be formerly approved until its board meeting on April 16.

Washington State Investment Board has been the sole investor in PECH since it was created in 1999. Since then, the pension fund has invested $2.3bn through five separate commitments.

PECH provides growth capital to real estate operating companies that own, manage and develop apartments, retail and industrial properties predominantly in the US.

The pension fund is considering moving a $200m investment it has in Alere Property Group into PECH.

A final decision on this action could be made at the board meeting next week.

The $200m can be drawn down by Alere as needed. Not all of the capital has been used by the California-based industrial specialist.