On October 3, LaSalle Investment Management, headquartered in Chicago, announced the purchase of Midosuji Front Tower in Osaka’s Umeda district through their Frontier Property LLC, signalling the end of the building’s 8 year vacancy. The sale price was not disclosed.

Midosuji Front Tower was completed in 2010. It has sat vacant ever since due to a dispute between the owners. When development discussions began during the previous mini-bubble in 2007, it was estimated that the completed building could bring an annual rent of between 800 million ~ 1 billion Yen. In 2012, one of the co-owners sought the demolition of the building in order to get their land returned. They later installed billboards within the grounds in both Japanese and English as a protest.

The 20-storey building has a total floor area of 18,201 sqm (196,000 sq.ft). A building refurbishment is scheduled to start at the end of this month with the office space to be ready for tenants in 2019.

This will add some much needed commercial floor space to the city center, which has been suffering from a drastic shortage. In August 2018, the office vacancy rate in the Umeda district was 1.69%, down 1.04 points from last year.

Location

1-13-22 Sonezakishinchi, Kita-ku, Osaka City

Sources:
The Yomiuri Shimbun, October 4, 2018.
The Nikkei Shimbun, October 3, 2018.
R.E.Port, October 3, 2018.

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