When Sterling Bay was revealed to have made a pitch to the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund to help kickstart the developer’s planned $6 billion Lincoln Yards project, it struck Ald. Gilbert Villegas as an opportunity.
Villegas, of the 36th Ward, will propose a resolution at next week’s City Council meeting, calling for a hearing on a committee he chairs on whether to study the potential for more city pension funds to invest in real estate development projects in Chicago, Crain’s reported.
Sterling Bay’s pitch to the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund prompted the alderman to take action, realizing that the city could utilize more of its pension funds to invest in local real estate ventures. He plans to bring up the idea in his Committee on Economic, Capital and Technology Development.
“Why aren’t we doing that?” Villegas told the outlet. “Why aren’t some of our pension funds taking a look at investing in projects here in Chicago and creating economic development?”
He plans to ask city clerk Anna Valencia, treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin and the city’s top budget and finance officials to provide details on how invested the funds are in local real estate and to increase those investments if it makes sense.
These employees oversee at least one of the city’s four pension funds, which include the Municipal Employees’ Annuity and Benefit Fund, the Laborers’ & Retirement Board Employees’ Annuity & Benefit Fund, the Policemen’s Annuity & Benefit Fund and the Firemens’ Annuity & Benefit Fund.
The four pension funds are composed of at least two trustees that are either appointed by the mayor or are automatically a trustee due to their positions. While the city can’t mandate how these funds invest, Villegas hopes to nudge the trustees to take a closer look at them and how they can benefit real estate.
“The city can’t tell the pension funds what to invest in, obviously, that’s a fiduciary responsibility,” Villegas told the outlet. “But we do want to, at a minimum, encourage pension board members when they’re …having meetings around investments to take a look at investing in ourselves as a city, specifically around real estate.”
— Quinn Donoghue
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