MassPRIM re-ups with Townsend for real estate, timber consulting services

The board for the Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Management Board, which manages Massachusetts’ $59.7 billion Pension Reserves Investment Trust, has approved the real estate and timber committee’s recommendation to retain the The Townsend Group as the board’s general real estate and timber consultant for the next three years.

Townsend’s previous three-year term with the board ended Aug. 1, and the firm was allowed to reapply for the position along with other candidates. According to documents from the real estate and timber committee, the committee liked Townsend’s “superior depth of expertise and resources relative to its peers,” and found its focus on real estate and timber alone to be a positive.

Under Townsend’s guidance, MassPRIM’s $3.8 billion private real estate portfolio has outperformed its benchmark by 4.6 percent for the year leading up to May 31 and 1.5 percent for the three years leading up to May 31, and its $1.5 billion timberland portfolio has outperformed its benchmark by 1.2 percent for the 12 months through May 31 but underperformed its benchmark by 1.2 percent for the three years through May 31.