The previous JV's first transaction was a mezzanine loan on the Mobil Building at 150 E. 42nd St. in Manhattan. Subsequent investments included a mezz loan on 1285 Ave. of the Americas, also in Midtown Manhattan, a portfolio of US life science and biotech office buildings, and CMBS backed by Market Square in San Francisco.

Separately, TH on Friday said it had closed $4.4 billion worth of commercial loans in the US and UK in 2016, across 62 transactions. Highlights in the US included a $400-million financing on four class-A office buildings in Washington DC and a $320-million financing of the 1.3-million-square-foot Country Club Plaza mixed used development in Kansas City, MO. In the UK, highlights of last year included a £95m loan for a London office portfolio and a £47m senior loan secured on logistics assets in Greater London.

NEW YORK CITY—Continuing a relationship they established in 2014, TH Real Estate and the Korean Teachers' Credit Union have launched a new joint venture to invest in US commercial real estate debt. TH, a division of TIAA Global Asset Management, and KCTU will contribute up to $1 billion to the JV.

“The low interest rate environment has investors looking for yield and for defensive investments at this mature stage in the real estate cycle,” says Jack Gay, global head of debt at TH. “We continue to see strong demand from foreign capital looking for opportunities in the US which appear to be especially attractive on a relative basis, given global trends. Mezzanine loans in particular hold the potential to offer returns that are very close to equity returns.”

At KTCU, chairman Yonglin Moon says TIAA shares “a similar mission” with his organization “and is a market-dominant investor in the United States. We plan to expand our joint venture relationship in real estate by seeking additional investments in other areas of real assets such as infrastructure.”

Since partnering three years ago, TH and KTCU have invested over $950 million in US commercial real estate loans. They began by co-investing $455 million in commercial mortgages backed by office properties in New York City and Houston, and then expanded the relationship later that year to seek up to $1 billion in additional assets via a JV.

The previous JV's first transaction was a mezzanine loan on the Mobil Building at 150 E. 42nd St. in Manhattan. Subsequent investments included a mezz loan on 1285 Ave. of the Americas, also in Midtown Manhattan, a portfolio of US life science and biotech office buildings, and CMBS backed by Market Square in San Francisco.

Separately, TH on Friday said it had closed $4.4 billion worth of commercial loans in the US and UK in 2016, across 62 transactions. Highlights in the US included a $400-million financing on four class-A office buildings in Washington DC and a $320-million financing of the 1.3-million-square-foot Country Club Plaza mixed used development in Kansas City, MO. In the UK, highlights of last year included a £95m loan for a London office portfolio and a £47m senior loan secured on logistics assets in Greater London.