Illinois Teachers Issues RFP for Real Estate, Real Assets Consultant

The Teachers’ Retirement System of Illinois (TRS) has issued Requests for Proposals (RFPs) for consulting businesses that offer real estate and real asset investment advice.

The incumbent firm Stepstone Group has been asked to participate in the search, according to an announcement, which is accepting replies from interested firms until August 14.

The chosen consulting firm will work with TRS’s general investment consultant on allocation risk and return issues, as well as TRS’s $12.2 billion real estate and real asset portfolio, which is managed by a five-person investment team reporting directly to the executive director and CIO Stan Rupnik via two senior investment officers.

Real estate accounts for 16% of the $71 billion pension’s total assets. Last month, Starwood Capital Group, which already manages $818 million on behalf of the system, received an additional $300 million. According to the RFP, core real estate (55.1%) accounted for most of the portfolio, with the remainder allocated to value-add and opportunistic strategies.

The portfolio consists of residential, industrial, office, retail, and hotel properties. The real assets program’s long-term aim is 2% of assets. The portfolio includes investments in infrastructure, agriculture, timber, and special situations strategies.