Ohio PERS commits to 2 secondary real estate funds

Ohio Public Employees' Retirement System, Columbus, committed $200 million each to Landmark Partners secondary real estate funds Landmark Real Estate Fund VIII and Landmark Real Estate Partners VIII Co-Investment Fund, according to a real estate update from spokesman Michael Pramik.

The $99.7 billion retirement system, which includes $85.6 billion in defined benefit plan assets, made commitments to predecessor funds in 2014. As of Dec. 31, Ohio PERS had $251 million invested in Landmark Real Estate Partners VII Co-Investment Fund and $142 million in Landmark Real Estate Partners VII.

The commitments were the first to real estate this year for the retirement system. Ohio PERS in the report said it made only one closed-end real estate commitment in 2017 — $123 million to Lubert-Adler Real Estate Fund VII-B in the fourth quarter. The report also said the retirement system plans a total of $600 million in closed-end commitments for the year and the addition of $2 billion to existing separate account relationships.

As of Dec. 31, the actual allocation to private real estate was 8.5%; the target is 10%.