Teachers’ Retirement System of the State of Illinois (TRS Illinois) is investing $600m (€517m) in real estate and infrastructure strategies.

The pension fund said in a meeting document that it has approved $300m into Blackstone Infrastructure Partners, $100m into Principal Real Estate Investors and $200m with into The Fortress Group.

TRS Illinois joins Teacher Retirement System of Texas, Pennsylvania Public School Employees Retirement System and New Mexico State Investment Council, all of which have backed the Blackstone fund. The fund also has support from Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund and is seeking to raise $40bn.

Last month, the US private equity firm Blackstone confirmed that it had raised $5bn for the fund, but has yet to reveal any specific investments made.

The global fund intends to focus on assets in the transportation, energy, water and waste, and communication sectors.

TRS Illinois said the investment with Principal will be for a separate account to invest in value-add US industrial properties. The pension fund first committed $200m to the account in 2013 for a core strategy.

The investment with Fortress will be placed into the Fortress Japan Opportunity Fund IV. IPE Real Assets reported last month that the fund had so far raised $1.5bn.

The opportunistic real estate fund will invest in Japan real estate and operating companies.

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