How a Teacher’s Pension Fund Became a Real Estate Giant

The Commercial Observer reports:

One of New York City’s most prominent real estate empires traces its origins to the financial well-being of professors rather than to a family patriarch. TIAA-CREF, which stands for Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association College Retirement Equities Fund, entered the city’s real estate market in 1944 with the purchase of a Montgomery Ward store in Flushing, Queens, and a six-story office building at 3 East 44th Street.

Around 40 years later, the financial services firm financed the construction and operations of the original 7 World Trade Center and owned the Seagram Building for a dozen years, Philip McAndrews, its chief investment officer of global real estate, told Commercial Observer.

Nowadays, the real estate division of the company founded by Andrew Carnegie in 1918 is expanding its presence in New York City and beyond.

Last week, The New York Post reported that TIAA-CREF was in contract to buy 837 Washington Street for $200 million, a record price in the Meatpacking District. In 2014, the company closed on sizable office and retail acquisitions and tenant leasing in New York City. It also inaugurated an international joint venture with European investment manager Henderson Global Investors as the majority partner in a $22.6 billion portfolio.

Backdoor socialism?