LACERS to commit $35m to Almanac fund

The $17 billion Los Angeles City Employees Retirement System is considering a commitment of up to $35 million to Almanac Realty Securities VIII, according to board meeting documents. The pension fund will vote to approve the commitment at its April 10 investment meeting.

Almanac Realty Securities VIII, managed by Almanac Realty Investors, is a U.S.-focused value-added real estate fund. The strategy of the fund is to provide growth capital to real estate operating companies that have property portfolios with existing cash flow and value-added potential, and companies with significant real estate assets integral to their business. Almanac is targeting $1.5 billion in equity commitments for the fund, with a hard cap of $2 billion, according to the board documents.

Almanac has an existing general partner relationship with LACERS. The pension fund previously committed $25 million to Almanac Realty Securities VI in 2013.

As of Sept. 30, 2017, LACERS had a 5 percent target allocation to real estate. While LACERS is slightly overweight to real estate, projected liquidations from legacy noncore investments over the next three years will bring this exposure below the target allocation to real estate to an estimated 3.3 percent of total plan assets by 2021.