CLEVELAND —Forest City Enterprises Inc. and QIC Global Real Estate have teamed up on a major US retail portfolio valued at over $2.05 billion. The real estate arm of government-owned Queensland Investment Corp. will acquire a 49% equity interest in the eight-asset portfolio for $435.6 million in cash.

The purchase, the first US direct investment for the Australian institutional investment manager, is part of the firm's long-term investment strategy. “Expansion into the US retail sector is a natural progression and comes after extensive investigation of the real estate market,” says Steven Leigh, managing director of Brisbane-based QIC GRE. The investment, he adds, provides the firm with scarce, premium-quality offshore properties that met the global real estate needs of institutional clients.

The portfolio consists of eight US regional retail malls that are currently owned by Forest City. The locally based firm will serve as managing member of the individual joint ventures and will continue to handle the leasing, operations, marketing, financing, development services and asset management of the properties. All the retail centers are said to be in attractive locations and have high occupancy, with further opportunities due to their lifecycle stage.