CalPERS On The Hook For $600M In Failing NYC, Northern California "Predatory Equity" Real Estate Schemes Designed To Force Tenants From Their Homes?

NewsBlaze reports:

• CalPERS(1) will lose hundreds of millions of dollars in predatory real estate investment schemes according to recent reports in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the San Jose Mercury News, and other publications. What has not been adequately reported is that these schemes are classic examples of what housing advocates call "predatory equity," overleveraged investments that rely on the displacement of tenants from rent-regulated housing in order to turn profits. CalPERS has effectively invested (and lost) the retirement funds of working people in projects that were designed to displace working people from their homes.

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• CalPERS, the nation's largest pension fund, will lose $600 million in two separate real estate investment deals: one in New York City with partners Tishman Speyer Properties and BlackRock Realty(2) and another in East Palo Alto, CA with partner Page Mill Properties. Both investments have been the subject of considerable controversy as they have involved the mass displacement of low and moderate income tenants from their homes. They have also spawned multiple lawsuits and raised the ire of tenants, community organizations, public officials, and labor groups.

For more, see CalPERS Loses $600M in Schemes Designed to Displace Tenants.

In a related post on the NYC fiasco, see City Concerned About Effect On Tenants From Unwinding $5.4B Purchase Of 11,000+ Unit Apartment Complexes Gone Bad.

(1) The California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) is an agency in the California executive branch that manages pension and health benefits for more than 1.6 million California public employees, retirees, and their families.

(2) Other big players which can be heard "sucking wind" around the globe on the New York City alleged "predatory equity" deal involving a massive 56-building, 11,000-unit apartment complex, according to a recent Wall Street Journal report [see An Apartment Complex Teeters (High-Profile Tishman/BlackRock Property in New York in Danger of Default)], are:

• Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC), a global investment management company established to manage Singapore's foreign reserves - reportedly on the hook for a loss estimated at $575 million;
• Florida State Board of Administration, the outfit which manages, invests and safeguards assets of the Florida Retirement System Trust Fund and other funds for the State of Florida and local governments - reportedly ready to eat a loss estimated at $250 million;
• California State Teachers Retirement System (CalSTRS), primarily responsible for providing retirement related benefits and services to teachers in public schools and community colleges - about to flush the toilet on an estimated $100 million;
• Hartford Financial, an insurance company facing a reported estimated $100 million;
• DG HYP, a Germany-based commercial real estate lender reportedly on the hook for close to $100 million; and
• The Church of England, which reportedly "donated" an estimated $70 million in pursuit of profit in this apparently now-hopeless cause.