LACERS commits to Gerrity commingled fund

Los Angeles City Employees’ Retirement System has committed up to $20 million to Gerrity Retail Fund II, according to board meeting documents. The value-added fund is the Gerrity Group’s first commingled fund. The firm is hoping to raise $400 million.

The real estate fund will focus on retail properties, mainly in grocery-anchored shopping centers in non-urban areas that are underperforming. The primary target markets are Arizona, California, Colorado, Oregon and Washington state. Gerrity Group is a continuation of the community and neighborhood shopping center business founded by William Gerrity in the early 1990s, which included partnerships with Morgan Stanley, Principal Financial and the Washington State Investment Board.

According to the LACERS meeting documents, the Gerrity fund falls under the LACERS Emerging Investment Manager Policy and was identified as a noncore “best idea” opportunity by LACERS’s real estate consultant