Hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman and his wife, Neri Oxman, are donating 10 million shares in Pershing Square to help establish a major new brain research and rehabilitation centre in New York, according to a report by Bloomberg.

The shares, which are held through the couple’s Pershing Square Foundation, were worth almost $400m based on Pershing Square’s closing price on Wednesday.

The foundation has acquired a 400,000-square-foot building on Manhattan’s Upper West Side for the project and is under contract to purchase a further 130,000-square-foot property nearby, along with an adjoining vacant lot and associated air rights.

Ackman said the planned facility, to be called the Ackman Oxman Institute, aims to become a leading centre for brain research, rehabilitation and recovery, as well as work focused on human performance and longevity.

The institute is expected to collaborate with Mount Sinai and other hospitals and medical schools.

Ackman also said he and Oxman intend to make another donation of a comparable or potentially larger value, although that contribution will not be made in Pershing Square shares.