(Crystal Proenza is associate editor of Real Estate Florida.)

[IMGCAP(1)]CORAL GABLES, FL-AEW Capital Management, a Boston-based institutional pension fund advisor, has acquired the 224,049-sf 355 Alhambra Circle building from owner JP Morgan Investment Management. The 16-story class A tower was on the market for less than four months and sold for a price between $90 and $100 million in an all cash transaction, according to industry sources. This is the second purchase AEW has made from JP Morgan in the past four years. The firm acquired 550 Biltmore Way, a 160,000-sf Coral Gables office building, in 2004.

The deal is part of a growing trend of institutional buyers purchasing buildings on behalf of investor funds in all cash transactions, as reported by GlobeSt.com last month. Just weeks ago Deka Immobilien, a German open-end property fund based in Frankfurt, acquired the 207,000-sf BAC Colonnade class A office building for $82.9 million in all-cash transaction.

And there's more to come. USAA Real Estate Co., which already owns Columbus Center office building, is under contract to purchase another Coral Gables property, the Alhambra Plaza, according to local brokers. That deal is a collective purchase USAA would make from owners Crescent/Morgan Stanley including Two Alhambra Plaza, a class A office tower and Alhambra West, a class B office building located on the same block at 95 Merrick Way.