Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan is bringing its real estate investment operations in-house and preparing to name Sal Iacono as the new chief executive of Cadillac Fairview Corp. Ltd., as the long-time head of the real estate company, John Sullivan, prepares to retire.
By next January, Teachers’ plans to create an in-house real estate group that will take charge of its investing in the sector. Teachers’ will absorb the entire 37-person team of investment professionals from Cadillac Fairview and launch a search for a global head of real estate to lead it, the pension plan announced Monday.Cadillac Fairview will continue to own, operate and develop real estate as Teachers’ takes over the investing activities.
The real estate investment group will be “a strategic complement to our existing investment teams across other asset classes,” said Ziad Hindo, Teachers’ chief investment officer, in a prepared statement.pressure is rising on commercial real estate In 2022, Teachers’ real estate portfolio – invested through Cadillac Fairview – lost 3.5 per cent, falling short of a benchmark portfolio it uses to measure its performance, which gained 6.7 per cent. Valuations on its Canadian retail and office portfolios, which make up a large proportion of Teachers’ real estate investments, fell as those properties underperformed.