By Muskan Arora
The $427m Somerville (Mass.) Retirement
System is searching for real estate investment managers, with a ticket size of
$15m to $25m.
The system prefers managers of core, core
plus, value added and opportunistic strategies, as stated in the RFP.
The RFP was issued to comply with
regulatory requirements, said Michael Pasquariello, executive director.
“Favourable fees, performance and strategy
will be a factor in the selection process,” stated the RFP.
“However, the manager’s experience,
qualifications, resources and level of proposed services will be key factors in
determining the selected manager,” as mentioned in the RFP.
The manager will be expected to meet with
the board at regular intervals and will report to the board at least monthly on
the portfolio.
While evaluating the manager, the system
will consider its ESG practices and policies and PERAC rating system of highly
advantageous, advantageous, not advantageous and unacceptable based on the
criteria among others.
Experience in providing real estate
investment management to the retirement board, length of experience, quality of
fund management and breadth of investment opportunities, qualification of fund
management services and feed will be a few factors considered during PERAC
rating.
The system allocates 4.2% to its real
estate portfolio as of June 30.
Proposals are due by September 4 and the
system plans to select a manager by December 1.
