Former Taiyo Dept Store in Kumamoto to be demolished
The Daiei Kumamoto Shimotori Store (formerly the Taiyo Department Store) in Kumamoto City will be demolished next year. The building was the scene of a devastating fire in 1973 that killed 104 people and injured 120.
The 60 year old building opened in 1952 as the Taiyo Department Store. In its early days it was considered the best store in the city.
The store was closed for the next two years following the fire as the building underwent repairs. When it finally re-opened, 120,000 people visited on the opening day. However, the store never fully recovered from the incident and went bankrupt a year later.
Central Tokyo's first 5-storey wooden building completed
Last month, Mitsui Home completed the construction of a 5-storey wood-frame building in Ginza.This is the second 2x4 wood-framed 5-storey building to be built in Japan, and is the first in central Tokyo. In April 2012, a 5-storey apartment building was competed in Setagaya-ku.Read more
Yomiuri Shimbun Building officially opened
The new headquarters of the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper in Otemachi was officially opened on November 28. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe gave a celebratory address to the 900 guests at the opening ceremony.
The 200m tall 33-storey building has replaced the former 10-storey head office. It is now the tallest building in the Otemachi area and is slightly higher than the 199.7m tall Otemachi Tower which was completed in August.Read more
Handover of new apartments in Wellith Arisugawa begins today
Buyers begin moving into the recently completed Wellith Arisugawa condominium in Minamiazabu today. The luxury low-rise apartment building is located just a few minutes from Hiroo Station and Arisugawa Park and is the only condominium to be built in the exclusive Minamiazabu 5 Chome address in the last eight years.
Sales began in October 2012 and 52 of the 57 apartments have already sold. Prices ranged from 84.8 to 599 million Yen (834,000 ~ 5.9 million USD), with an average price of approximately 1,630,000 Yen/sqm (16,000 USD/sqm).Read more
Toh-Ten-Koh selling Ueno restaurant building
Toh-Ten-Koh announced that they will be selling their Ueno restaurant building and land to Tokyo Tatemono for 8.914 billion Yen (88 million USD).
Toh-Ten-Koh are currently building a new store on an adjoining block of land they already own and will relocate once the building is complete in 2015. The new store will be on a smaller site of 2,000 sqm, but will be built to the latest earthquake-resistant codes. It is estimated to cost approximately 4.6 billion Yen. Construction began in October.Read more
Avex Group redeveloping Omotesando HQ
Japan's leading record label Avex Group will be rebuilding their headquarters in Omotesando. The current building was constructed in 1980 and has been occupied by Avex since 1995. Avex later acquired the building and land in 2002.
The decision to rebuild was made after an assessment showed that the 33-year old building would require some very costly repairs and maintenance in the mid-term.
A total of 1,923 people work in the 9-storey building. Read more
Wellith Daikanyama Sarugakucho almost sold out
One recently completed condominium in Daikanyama is close to selling out with only six apartments remaining for sale.
By October 20, 38 of the 40 apartments offered for sale in the high-end building have received purchase applications. The majority of buyers were in their late 40s and 50s. Approximately 20% of buyers were from outside the Kanto area, but there were no reports of buyers from overseas. Read more