CalPERS recently adopted a new five-year “back to basics” strategic plan. The plan redefines the role of real estate within the larger portfolio and will drastically reshape the pension plan’s real estate portfolio. Ted Eliopoulos,CalPERS’ senior investment officer, real estate, recently spoke with Institutional Real Estate, Inc.’s CEO and editor-in-chief Geoffrey Dohrmannregarding recent challenges at CalPERS and the strategic plan’s conception and implementation.

The United States and the rest of the world economy appear to be slowly coming out of a prolonged recession. What is going to happen next is a topic of much discussion among economists and other pundits. We strongly believe the U.S. economy will experience a period of stagflation, and the impact on commercial real estate performance will vary by property type.

One of the most striking outcomes of the Great Recession in the United States is the contrasting experience of the “haves” and “have-nots.” This is true for individuals, corporations … and for commercial real estate markets. Transaction indices suggest, and anecdotal observations confirm, that U.S. commercial real estate (CRE) prices have risen substantially over the past year in a few high-profile markets, notably New York City and Washington, D.C. Yet values in most other U.S. cities have remained stagnant at best, and in some cases are still falling.

When it comes to negotiating and documenting a real estate joint venture, it is common to employ a letter of intent (LOI) — also commonly referred to as a term sheet or memorandum of understanding (MOU) — in the early stages of the negotiations. Because letters of intent vary greatly in structure and content, it can be difficult to know exactly where to focus attention when it comes time to review and negotiate the letter of intent. This article is intended to highlight some threshold considerations.