TIAA-CREF has been historically underweight on multifamily, according to head of Northeast acquisitions Giacomo Barbieri (here in a conversation withMassey Knakal's James Nelsonat Bisnow's 4th Annual NYC Multifamily Summit this week). Giacomo said his company has been stocking up on it coming out of the recession, especially in New York, where multifamily is only 7% of the pension fund's portfolio.

Because multifamily product ages the quickest, Teachers looks for one unique quality that will make the property outperform long-term. For 72nd and Broadway, that meant location. For MiMA (Middle of Manhattan) at Tenth Avenue and 42nd Street, it was the 44k SF of amenity space that can be reinvented as tenant tastes change. And for the Frank Gehry-designed 8 Spruce St (above; TIAA-CREF's recap valued the property at over $1B), it was the bay windows, which offered "undulating" floor plans and 180-degree views. (It looks like the perfect building for Tom Cruise to scale in Mission: Impossible.) In Manhattan, TIAA tends to break its majority-ownership rule to get into the best properties, which are still often owned by the developers.