Ohio Public Employees Retirement System plans to plough $459m (€348m) into US industrial property and is allocating $350m to an opportunistic strategy run by Och-Ziff.

The pension fund is close to bottom of its target allocation to industrial real estate and is providing capital to four separate account managers: $205m to Heitman, $125m to UBS Realty Investors, $100m to PCCP and $29m to LaSalle Investment Management.

They will invest in a combination of equity and debt as part of Ohio PERS’s non-core real estate strategy.

The pension fund is planning to extend the programme to hotels and the retail sector.

According to board meeting documents, Ohio PERS plans to invest $1.26bn through separate accounts this year.

Ohio PERS has also approved a $200m commitment to the Och-Ziff Real Estate Fund III and will allocate an additional $150m into two investment sleeves for co-investments with the fund.

The closed-ended fund will seek to buy pools of existing real estate loans and invest in real estate operating companies.

Och-Ziff is seeking to raise between $1bn and $1.5bn for the fund and will be co-investing $75m.

Ohio PERS plans to invest $400m in opportunistic funds this year, offset by $791m in proceeds from sales and financing activities.