The Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund (IMRF) is placing €125m in core European real estate funds.
The pension fund confirmed to Â鶹ӳ» Real Estate that it is investing in open-ended funds managed by Global Investors, Real Estate and Cornerstone Real Estate Advisers.
The move will make IMRF one of the first US pension funds to put a significant amount of capital into core real estate funds in Europe.
Earlier this month, on how US pension funds could move away from the tradition of targeting higher-return strategies when investing outside their domestic property market.
Significant allocations from US pension funds to core European real estate could help develop the region’s open-ended property fund industry.
In May, that IMRF was searching for a manager of European core fund and that it was considering investing in Cornerstone’s fund.
IMRF has since decided to commit €50m to the CBRE Global Investors Pan European Core Fund, €50m to Invesco European Core Fund and €25m into the Cornerstone European Core Fund.
The pension fund has existing relationships with all three managers.
Cornerstone, owned by MassMutual insurance company in the US, has been (€447m) for its open-ended fund with a long-term goal of building the size of the vehicle up to $1bn.
The company plans to invest in existing office, industrial, retail and residential assets in London and Paris, and major markets in Germany, the Netherlands and Spain.
The properties will be acquired with debt financing of up to 40%.
