Oklahoma Teachers' Retirement System, Oklahoma City, committed $150 million to Starwood Distressed Opportunity Fund XII managed by Starwood Capital Group.
The commitment to the opportunistic real estate fund was approved at a board meeting Oct. 21, said Tom Spencer, the pension fund's executive director in an email.
The $17.6 billion pension fund has committed to previous Starwood funds, Mr. Spencer said.
Separately, the board decided to terminate its search for a non-core, open-end real estate manager due to the COVID-19 pandemic. "There are just too many unknowns in this market to confidently select any manager at this time," Mr. Spencer said.
The pension fund issued an RFP in October 2019 and had named Brookfield Asset Management, J.P. Morgan Asset Management and Principal Real Estate Investors as finalists in the search. It had planned to hire no more than two managers for a total of up to $200 million.
The search may be revisited at a later date, but the entire process would have to be redone, Mr. Spencer said.
