It used to be so simple. Infrastructure as a category meant bridges, roads and airports, public utilities, too. But with the advent of telecom towers, pharma labs, cold storage logistics, you name it, infrastructure is no longer so easy to define.

That causes a portfolio construction conundrum. Does infrastructure as an asset class prove a better fit as part of a private-equity portfolio, a real estate allocation, venture capital, or somewhere in between?

The answer “depends,” according to Niraj Agarwal, the head of real assets for the State of New Jersey. That’s not so helpful, while it might be true. But in many instances infrastructure crosses asset categories, with features that fall in between.

“Infrastructure has more in common with private equity than real estate from a professional-skillset perspective, as well as from the perspective of how deals actually get transacted in the market,” Agarwal explains. “Most infrastructure transactions toda