Blackrock and other similar fund managers are investing money on behalf of others (typically institutions like state employees retirement plans and university endowments, etc.), and they are seeking the best yield they can find. 

Institutional investors are a professional class of organizations that manage large sums of “institutional capital” (money), such as pension funds, university endowments, insurance companies, sovereign wealth funds, or family offices.For example, CalSTRS is a pension fund that provides retirement benefits for California’s public school teachers.

A goal of mine is to use real estate to help benefactors extend the timeline of their donations to their favorite charities by purchasing rental properties that will ultimately create a mini endowment for the charity of their choice.

Look for unrestricted endowment assets, any consistently negative cash flow and how dependent they are on tuition or use of endowment.

I think I posted a few articles on this thread about what Stanford endowment is doing and some of big tech to address work force housing.. which is all great if they can get the land and get land use approvals.to me its like going back 100 years to big industry that owned the town and all the houses..

MEC- Modified endowment contracts-  Lots of people are scared of these because they loose some of their tax advantages, and there are lots of agents that set these up wrong and screw them up.

Timber land holdings is a niche for sure.. some of the largest owners in the US are the Harvard endowment and John Hancock. at least as it relates to North west timber holdings. 

People often talk about the amazing returns produced by college endowments, some hedge funds, private equity, etc.  

Well and good for the long term, but a park isn't going to make the houses around it appreciate like crazy, and the park is only going to happen on the glacial timescale of the Heinz Endowment and the other two foundations that own the park.

@Antoine Martel  nothing unique about timber.. its the number one best passive investment in the US hands down.. the largest owners of US timber land are  John Hancock and the Harvard endowment fund.  10 to 14% returns annually all passive ... beat the crap out of most anything else if your looking for true passive.it was the absolute best thing I have ever done in real estate...