Ohio Public Employees Retirement System is investing $100m (€87.5m) in the BlackRock Granite Property Fund as part of plans to place $200m in open-ended property funds this year.
The pension fund already has a $430m holding in BlackRock Realty’s core open-ended fund, having invested $100m in 2007 and $200m in 2012.
The fund invests in core real estate assets in the US, although a small portion can be allocated to value-add assets.
Ohio PERS has also decided to re-invest quarterly distributions and retained earnings of $15m into the five open-ended funds it already invests in: the Granite Fund, PRISA, PRISA II, JP Morgan Strategic Property Fund and UBS Trumbull Property Fund.
The total value of the pension fund’s investments in these funds is $1.9bn.
Ohio PERS is also planning to invest $400m for in closed-ended real estate funds and allocate $1.66bn to separate account investments this year.
The funds could be domestic or international. No commitments have been approved.
The capital for the separate accounts will be used for a mixture of existing assets in the portfolio to be repositioned, investing equity in new developments and buying new properties.
