Ohio Police & Fire Pension Fund has added Cortland Partners to its real estate manager lineup by way of a capital commitment into the US multifamily homes operator’s first institutional backed fund.

The $15.91bn (€14.0bn) pension fund said it has approved $50m into the manager’s open-ended Cortland Partners Growth and Income Fund.

Cortland, headquartered in Atlanta, is one of the largest multifamily owner-operators in the US, where it owns and manages around 45,000 apartments.

The Growth and Income fund has a core plus investment strategy that looks to invest in apartment complexes mostly in the Southeast region.

The Growth and Income fund is the manager’s first institutional backed fund.

In the past, Cortland has created joint ventures. For instance, earlier this year, it entered into a joint venture with Singapore’s GIC and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. Cortland also formed another venture in August with GTIS Partners.

Cortland did not respond to a request for comment.

Ohio Police & Fire, which seeks to ramp up infrastructure investment, also said it has made a $125m commitment into the Axium Infrastructure US Fund. The open-ended fund will target core infrastructure assets in North America.

The pension fund’s Infrastructure commitment is part of its plan to build up its real asset portfolio. Ohio Police & Fire’s real assets allocation includes agriculture and timber (real estate is treated as a separate allocation).

It has an 8% target real assets allocation with a current value of $283m.