Posted by:
Steve Dubb
California's CalPERS isn't the only pension fund to invest locally
Most who study public pension fund investments’ impact on community development focus on big states like California or New York, but for many years the state of Alabama has been among the nation’s leaders in this area.
Alabama has leveraged pension dollars to support economic development for decades, as a spate of recent press articles linked to the Pension Fund’s “What’s New” section attests. A March 31, 2007 article in the Birmingham News notes that pension fund CEO David Bronner “has long been known for strong opinions about economic development and has used the post he has held since 1973 as a bully pulpit. He has helped lobby companies considering Alabama, lent them money, arranged other financing for them and built tourist destinations.”
One of the pension fund’s more unusual investments was developing the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail, which, according to an article in the March-April 2007 issue of Golf for Women, is “the largest golf project in the world” with ten courses, all designed by the late golf course architect Robert Trent Jones Sr., that were spread across the state. The project has made golf tourism “the state’s largest industry,” generating an estimated $7.5 billion for local business a year.
The pension fund also has done more traditional real estate investment. In the past four-and-a-half years, for instance, the fund has invested over $300 million in real estate projects in the city of Mobile, including the restoration of a 1909 hotel, the construction of a 35-story office tower (scheduled to open in May 2007 and already 80 percent leased), the renovation of another hotel, and the construction and management of a cruise terminal. And, according to RSA’s 2006 annual report, the pension fund is also an active investor in downtown Montgomery, where it is investing in a 12-story, 347-room hotel, spa and performing arts theater, the expansion of the Montgomery Civic Center (and building of a 600-car parking deck), as well as a 280,000 square foot office building that will be added to the State Capitol Complex. The Montgomery projects are expected to be completed in 2008.