Industry fund Tasplan has partnered with the Rockerfeller family to set up a fund to invest in Tasmanian-based assets.
"They're a family organisation and have been in property for many years in Tasmania. They have expertise in these kinds of investments. They were keen to do something which we didn't really have the capacity within the fund to do, so for us it was a good fit," Tasplan chief executive Neil Cassidy said.
The Tasmanian Growth Development Fund was seeded with $10 million from Tasplan and $10 million from the Tasmanian-based Rockerfeller family.
The fund recently purchased the Shoreline shopping centre and has been involved in the re-development of the Redline bus depot.
"We've turned it into office space and Medicare has moved in for 10 years...the project was done ahead of time and under budget," Cassidy said.
Both partners have committed a further $10 million each taking the total investment up to $40 million.
The fund is now on the hunt for further Tasmanian-based investments.
"Affordable housing is a big issue for us...but we have to go through a stringent due diligence process and the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority has taken a close interest," Cassidy said.
Since its inception in 1987 Tasplan has had an investment bias towards Tasmania.
"We did get involved with a pooled development fund that went for 10 years with other funds that provided seeding for small business, but we couldn't do any direct investments because the funds under management weren't large enough," Cassidy said.
The process of super funds clubbing together to invest has been gaining popularity lately.
In October Jana Investment Advisers said it was considering the possibility of "clubbing" together its small superannuation fund clients to improve their access to alternative investments such as unlisted infrastructure.
"We are thinking about it, although it is at a formative stage," JANA head of unlisted investments Robert Day said.
"The benefit of clubbing is that it could give them exposure to assets they otherwise couldn't [access]."
