AEW is buying Pearson’s US headquarters for $385M

Ivanhoe Cambridge is in contract to sell a 470,000-square-foot Hudson Square office building at 330 Hudson Street to AEW Capital Management for $385 million, The Real Deal has learned.

The building marked the Canadian pension fund manager’s second big Manhattan deal in the past year, following its $652 million purchase of 85 Broad Street.

Ivanhoe and its partner Callahan Capital Properties have swiftly moved in and out of the 16-story property. In 2014, the firms took a 49 percent stake from Beacon Capital Partners and in 2016 exercised an option to take full ownership.

In September, Ivanhoe put the building on the market in the price range of $400 million.

If the deal were to close, the price per square foot would come out to $819. The deal went under hard contract in late 2017, sources said.

AEW, a Boston-based investment manager led by CEO Jeffrey Furber, made the purchase through its core fund AEW Core Property Trust, which is a compilation of pension funds, sources said.

Eastdil Secured represented the seller.

British education publisher Pearson uses the property for its North American headquarters, taking 70 percent of the total space. Built in 1910, the property is fully occupied and is also home to General Motors and TripAdvisor. Asking rents range from $80 to $95 per square foot.

AEW has been a quiet New York player in recent years. The firm took a 15 percent interest in Brookfield Property Partners’ One New York Plaza in late 2016 for $223 million, while also making buys in Los Angeles and Seattle.

Representatives for Ivanhoe and Eastdil declined to comment, and AEW could not be reached.

Just a couple blocks north in Hudson Square, Trinity Real Estate recently paid $560 a foot, or $615 million, for 375 Hudson Street.