The preparation of a binuclear Ni(II) complex with a pentacoordinate environment using a cryptand organic ligand and the imidazolate bridge is reported. The coordination sphere is close to trigonal bipyramidal (tbp) for one Ni(II) and to square pyramidal (spy) for the other. The use of the imidazolate bridge that undergoes pi-pi stacking with two benzene rings of the chelating ligand induces steric hindrance that stabilizes the pentacoordinate environment. Magnetic measurements together with theoretical studies of the spin states energy levels allow fitting the data and reveal a large Ising-type anisotropy and a weak anti-ferromagnetic exchange coupling between the metal ions. The magnitude and the nature of the magnetic anisotropy and the difference in anisotropy between the two metal ions are rationalized using wave-function-based calculations. We show that a slight distortion of the coordination sphere of Ni(II) from spy to tbp leads to an Ising-type anisotropy. Broken-symmetry density functional calculations rationalize the weak anti-ferromagnetic exchange coupling through the imidazolate bridge.