The Iowa Public Employees Retirement System (Iowa PERS) has plans to make $100m (€94m) available for possible investments in its real estate, timberland and farmland portfolios in 2017, according to a board-meeting document.

The pension fund said the ultimate amount would depend on the opportunities available.

The allocation marks the first time in several years that the pension fund has made new capital available for separate-account real estate managers.

Iowa PERS has four separate-account managers – Clarion Partners, Invesco Realty Advisors, RREEF America and UBS Realty Advisors.

The managers mostly invest in core US office, industrial, retail and apartment assets.

The pension fund said its real estate managers had investment discretion to have 10% of their separate accounts in value-add transactions.

Iowa PERS has invested some capital in real estate outside its core real estate equity managers, placing capital with Blackstone and Principal Real Estate Investors in debt funds and with State Street Bank & Trust in a REIT strategy.

Some of the capital planned for next year could be invested through Forest Investment Associates for timberland and UBS Farmland Investors for farm assets, according to the pension fund’s website.

Iowa PERS has an 8% targeted allocation for real estate and 2% for real assets, out of total plan assets of $28.54bn.

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