Sterling Bay asks Chicago Teachers’ Pension Fund to rescue Lincoln Yards – Crain’s*

With the real estate firm under growing pressure to raise money to recapitalize the 53-acre mixed-use campus planned along the Chicago River between Lincoln Park and Bucktown, the pension fund's investment committee voted during a May 23 meeting to investigate an opportunity to become Sterling Bay's primary financial partner on the development, according to a video of the public meeting and investor documents obtained by Crain's.
13 Comments
Newest
Oldest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Chicago Teachers will invest in anything
2 years ago

Chicago Teachers Pension Fund ? Are you kidding me ? Underfunded, headed by an executive director who has never led a pension fund. It has a bare bones investment department led by a chief investment officer who has never been a chief investment officer, let alone made a single direct investment in anything. They do not appear to have a real estate invest department to review direct real estate investments. The Board of Trustees has zero experience analyzing or reviewing direct investments. Might as well invest in DV Urban, oh wait, they did.

The retirees should be storming the gates.

Where's Mine ???
2 years ago

CTU pension could invest only on the condition that all apartments are section 8

The Paraclete
2 years ago

Hmmmm…..smells suspiciously like a criminal enterprise, there will, be phone taps everywhere, they’ll find nothing!

JimBob
2 years ago

Detroit did that many times hopng to provide union jobs at union payscales as a trade-off for pension risk. It was assumed that the taxpayers would foot the bill WHEN things went south, as everyone anticipated at the outset. Generally the pension funds got second and third liens and construction lenders and workers had first claim on land and partially completed structures. Needless to say, lots of lawyers were paid lots of bucks to generate lots of paper. Probably some finders’ fees and CPA firms [questionable] feasability studies added to the up-front costs. Later the gift keeps on giving as… Read more »

nixit
2 years ago

Oakbrook Center is partially owned by CalPERS.

Streeterville
2 years ago

Well that takes a lotta chutzpah!

tinalove
2 years ago

Noooooooo!!!!!. If the private investors won’t join it means IT SHOULDN’T BE BUILT.

These already white wealthy areas will do just fine without it.

No tax payer funds. It goes south we on the hook for it.

Poor Taxpayer
2 years ago

Heads they win, tails taxpayers lose. That is a good bet.

GimmeABreak
2 years ago

So the geniuses at Stirling Bay pulled an LTCM? Let them hold onto it and develop it as cash flow allows…. Pathetic.

willowglen
2 years ago
Reply to  Mark Glennon

Why – commercial development is in terrible shape. The pensions can’t afford to enter into risky ventures.

ProzacPlease
2 years ago
Reply to  willowglen

Why worry about risk? We have been told ad nauseum that pensions will be paid no matter what, and there is plenty more tax revenue to be had. They believe they are operating in a risk-free environment.

Giddyap
2 years ago
Reply to  Mark Glennon

Crooked Corrupt Connected Developer

+

Crooked Corrupt Techers Union
____________________________

= THE MOTHER OF ALL FEDERAL CORRUPTION PROBES

SIGN UP HERE FOR FREE WIREPOINTS DAILY NEWSLETTER

Home Page Signup
First
Last
Check what you would like to receive:

FOLLOW US

 

WIREPOINTS ORIGINAL STORIES

Mark Glennon on AM560’s Morning Answer: Chicago pension buyout plan mostly shifts debt rather than eliminating it, property tax surge doubles inflation over three decades

Chicago’s political leadership is floating a pension buyout program as evidence it is seriously addressing the city’s thirty-six-billion-dollar unfunded pension liability, but Mark Glennon, founder of the Illinois policy research organization Wirepoints, said that the proposal moves debt from one column to another rather than reducing it, and that the broader fiscal picture facing the city continues to deteriorate across every measurable dimension. Audio here.

Read More »

WE’RE A NONPROFIT AND YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS ARE DEDUCTIBLE.

SEARCH ALL HISTORY

CONTACT / TERMS OF USE