The Ohio Police & Fire pension fund has created a real assets investment class with a 5% targeted allocation, according to an email.
With the creation of the investment class, the pension fund will be investing in infrastructure and agriculture for the first time.
The new asset class will include an existing 2% allocation – $290m (€272.8m) – to timber assets.
Ohio Police & Fire estimates that it will need to invest an additional $350m to $400m in the asset class domestically and globally.
Decisions on new investments will be made in conjunction with the Townsend Group.
No RFPs will be issued, and opportunities will be brought to the board after evaluation by investment staff and consultants.
IPE Real Estate understands that Ohio Police & Fire has found it difficult to identify acceptable timber opportunities that would allow it to reach its 5% target for the asset type.
The pension fund has also made a $50m allocation to the Exeter Industrial Fund IV.
It believes that now is a good time to place some capital into industrial property, as there continues to be strong growth in e-commerce, driving demand for warehouse space near population centres.
Ohio Police & Fire has made $200m worth of real estate commitments this year.
The pension fund had originally targeted up to $170m for 2016 and chose to issue redemption requests for two of its core open-ended funds.
It declined to comment on the size of the redemptions or the funds.
