Use placement new to create a static const pointer to a static memory buffer

I'd like to initialize a static, constant pointer to an object of class type MyClass2, which is stored in a static data buffer in class MyClass1 when it is instantiated.

This doesn't work:

class MyClass1 {
   public:
       MyClass1()
       {
           _my_class_2_ptr = new (_my_class_2_buf) MyClass2();
       }

   private:
      static MyClass2 *const  _my_class_2_ptr;
      static char *_my_class_2_buf = new char[sizeof(MyClass2)]; 
};

Is there a way to accomplish something like this?