The California Public Employees Retirement System chose CB Richard Ellis Investors LLC over several competitors, insiders tell GlobeSt.com. Under the program, CB Richard Ellis will place some of the CalPERS money in real estate projects and put the rest in technology companies that serve brokers, developers and real estate investors.

"CB Richard Ellis Investors has demonstrated experience investing in private equity, technology and real estate," says William D. Crist, president of the CalPERS Board of Administration. "They have a global network of relations with technology tenants and an understanding of technology real estate requirements that suits them well for this job."

The deal will help CalPERS leverage its $9.3 billion real estate portfolio and network of contacts in the venture capital industry to generate several new investment opportunities for the fund, Crist says. The money will be used to buy real estate in the Silicon Valley and other high-tech corridors, he says, and to form alliances or directly invest in "emerging companies at the intersection of real estate and technology, such as telecommunications firms, online commercial property listing services and energy-management entities."

CalPERS is no stranger when it comes to investing in high-tech companies that serve the real estate business. It already owns a piece of online listing service PropertyFirst.com, Virginia-based Broadband Communications and has formed a tech-related joint venture with Dallas-based Hines.

CB Richard Ellis won't have to invest all the money in the US, says Richard A. Magnuson, executive managing director of CB Richard Ellis Investors. "We target investments in the companies and real properties that are leaders of this [real estate and technology] convergence in North America and Europe," he says.

CalPERS is the nation's largest public pension fund, with assets of nearly $177 billion. CB Richard Ellis Investors LLC is a subsidiary of real estate services giant CB Richard Ellis Inc. and manages more than $10 billion in assets in the United States, Europe and Asia.