For more than 20 years, institutional investors have recognized commercial real estate as an essential asset class, often deserving of its own portfolio allocation of 8 percent to 10 percent or more. In fact, the investable universe of U.S. commercial real estate is estimated at nearly $13 trillion today, weighing in at just under half the U.S. public equities market cap of $27 trillion and approximately one-third the $38 trillion fixed-income market. Despite the compelling data in support of the “case for real estate,” private clients and smaller institutions have significantly lagged larger institutional investors’ allocations to real estate, often times limiting their investment choices to the classic 50/40/10 stocks/bonds/cash portfolio model.

Unfortunately, for the smaller investor, accessing real estate has frequently included adding exposure to stock market volatility, smaller and lower quality properties or under-diversified nontraded offerings at substantially