Townsend recommends LACERS invest $140m in core real estate

The $13.9 billion Los Angeles City Employees’ Retirement System has received a recommendation from its real estate consultant, The Townsend Group, to commit $35 million each to four separate open-end core real estate funds, Clarion Lion Industrial Trust, Jamestown Premier Property Fund, Morgan Stanley Prime Property Fund and Principal U.S. Property Account.

The recommendations fall in line with LACERS’ revised strategic plan, adopted in May 2014, which called for a more conservative risk profile for real estate and raised the retirement system’s target to core real estate from 30 percent of its real estate portfolio to 60 percent, and concurrently reduced the target to noncore real estate from 70 percent to 40 percent. Townsend expects LACERS to meet these targets during the next three years and recommends that LACERS invest $140 million