UNITED STATES - Washington State Investment Board is putting $1.2bn (€770.7bn) into a combination of real estate and infrastructure investments, and taking advantage of the need for debt liquidity in the market.

Officials decided last week at its board meeting to commit up to $400m into Washington Real Estate Holdings' Structured Finance LLC.

The pension fund has a history of investing with the venture, as it made a $250m allocation to the initial relationship in 2005 and a $350m commitment in 2006.

Assets will be loaned in the Western region of the United States in a variety of B note, mezzanine, bridge loan and preferred equity deals worth more than $10m a time, attached to office buildings, industrial properties, apartments, land and hotels.

Washington State has committed up to $400m to Principal Enterprise Capital Holdings, LLC, having first committed to the project in 1998 and investing $1.4bn since.

PEC Holdings has an investment strategy of making entity-level investments in a variety of private real estate operating companies.

There were restrictions on the relationship to invest in traditional real estate based only in the United States but this is now being expanded to allow some of the capital to be invested in companies located or owning real estate on a global basis.

A third commitment of up to $400m was also made by Washington to the Alinda Infrastructure Fund II, which places around 25% of the fund in Europe and holds most of its assets in North America.

This commitment was the pension fund's first commitment as part of its new ‘Tangible Assets' investment class, created in November of 2007.

The allocation for this asset class is 5% of total plan assets, but besides infrastructure, the asset class could carry investments in agriculture and timberland.

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