The state treasurer is negotiating a $50 million investment of state pension assets into a Dallas equity fund that invests in retail real estate, authorities say.
Treasurer Denise Nappier’s office announced Wednesday her intent to partner with Cypress Equities’ Cypress Acquisition Partners Retail Fund, whose model to buy U.S. retail properties and upgrade them with fresh tenants, or redevelop or reposition them.
According to Cypress’ online homepage, it had raised thru mid-year 2013 two-thirds of the $300 million intended to continue on that strategy through 2014. Its homepage doesn’t list any Connecticut holdings among its realty portfolio.
The state pension investment is contingent upon executing and signing a contract, Nappier said.
At Wednesday’s meeting of the Investment Advisory Council, Nappier told the panel she also is weighing as much as a $100 million pension investment with Clarion Lion Industrial Trust, a $4.8 billion open-end investment fund.
The fund will focus chiefly, she said, on acquiring, renovating, repositioning and/or redeveloping industrial properties across the country. The general partner is Clarion Partners of New York.
Spokesman David Barrett said these are part of the treasurer’s ongoing review of pension assets and their third-party handlers to extract maximum value from state and municipal workers’ more than $28 billion in pension assets.
