Board reviews private real estate history; InterContinental redemptions remain outstanding

Trustees heard a detailed history of the pension’s private real estate allocation and its performance since 2017, when the board first adopted up to a 10% strategic target for private real estate.

Brad Bridal of Mariner Institutional summarized the decision history, performance through the 2018–2021 period, and the liquidity stress beginning in late 2022. He told trustees that the board had asked Principal for redemptions (about $400,000 requested and received) and had an outstanding redemption request to InterContinental for roughly $350,000 as of the data through 09/30/2025 (figures reported in the presentation). Bridal cautioned that private funds can limit redemptions during stressed market periods and that InterContinental’s liquidity policy had resulted in slower pay-outs compared with Principal.

Former trustee and current Council member Sam Carroll, who served on the pension board at the time the investments were made, criticized coverage in The Wall Street Journal and said the article took a short period "out of context," calling it "a classic hatchet job." Carroll urged trustees and the public to evaluate private real estate over a full market cycle.

Bridal walked trustees through risk-adjusted returns and correlation exhibits. He said private real estate provided diversification benefits versus REITs and public equities, with long-term correlations to the S&P 500 near zero in some exhibits presented. Trustees discussed rolling correlations and whether short-term movements had raised structural concerns; no formal change to the real estate allocation was made during the meeting.

Ending: Trustees asked staff to track outstanding redemptions and to return with further liquidity analysis; the consultant offered to provide rolling-correlation exhibits in a future meeting.