Luxury hotel planned for historic site in Nara Park
Nara Prefecture is accepting bids from private companies for a hotel development to be located within the Nara Park grounds in Nara City. The 1.3 hectare site is located on the southern side of Nara Park’s Ukimi-do Hall, and was purchased by the prefecture from the national government in 2005.
Prior to the Meiji Restoration, the property was home to one of Kofuku-ji’s sub-temples. In 1890 it was sold to Nara poet Haruyasu Umeda (1850-1917). From 1911, it became the holiday villa of Kenshiro Yamaguchi (1886-1957), a wealthy banker and president of the Kansai Trust Bank (the predecessor of the Toyo Trust Bank, which is now part of the Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corporation). After WWII, the annex of the Nara Family Court was built on the land. The land is currently vacant although traces of the original Japanese garden remain.Read more
Yamaha Resort Tsumagoi sold to Kobe-based hotel operator
Hotel Management International (HMI Hotel Group) will acquire the Yamaha Resort Tsumagoi in Kakegawa City, Shizuoka, in March. The seller is Yamaha Corporation. The sale price has not been announced.Read more
Niseko luxury condominium/hotel opens this month
AYA Niseko, a luxury ski-in ski-out condominium/hotel located on the Grand Hirafu Resort ski slope, opened its doors this month. The 79-unit building is already almost 90% sold out, with the final few apartments expected to sell over the ski season.
The majority of apartments were in the 88 ~ 90 sqm range and priced from 100 ~ 400 million Yen (approx. 850,000 ~ 3.4 million USD), while a 370 sqm penthouse, which has already sold, was priced at 600 million Yen (approx. 5.1 million USD). Apartment prices are similar to what can be found in central Tokyo.Read more
400-room hotel planned opposite Olympic Stadium
Major Japanese real estate company Mitsui Fudosan and Meiji Shrine are planning to develop a 13-story, 400-room hotel to be located directly across the street from the Olympic Stadium.
If approved, construction of the 50-meter tall building could start in January 2018 with completion by mid-2019.Read more
Two 235m towers for Shibaura
Nomura Real Estate is redeveloping one of its office towers in Shibaura, Tokyo. The 40,000 square meter site is located just south of Hamamatsucho Station on the Yamanote Line and near Tokyo’s waterfront.
The Shibaura 1 Chome Redevelopment Project will include two 235m tall buildings with a total floor area of 580,000 sqm (approx. 6.24 million sq.ft). The South Tower will be 46-stories and contain office, hotel, and retail space, with completion due for 2023. The North Tower will be 47-stories and contain office, 350 apartments, and retail space, with completion due for 2029~2030.
Old hotels closing under new earthquake retrofitting rules
Local governments have started to publish earthquake-resistance data on hotels, hospitals, schools and other buildings across Japan. Data on over 12,000 buildings nationwide will be made public.
Kagawa Prefecture was the first prefecture in Japan to release data, with inspection reports on 37 hotels made public. The Tokyo metropolitan government plans to release their findings on buildings later in the capital in the second half of 2017.
Hotels, ryokans, department stores, theatres, aged care homes, schools, hospitals and other public buildings built before 1981, over 3-storeys and with a total floor area of 1,000 ~ 5,000 square meters and over are obligated to carry out an earthquake-resistance inspection, the results of which will be made public by local governments.
The introduction of these rules in 2013 has already led to a closure of several hotels across Japan.Read more
Ritz Carlton opening hotel in Nikko
Tobu Railway and Marriott International will be opening The Ritz Carlton Nikko on the shores of Lake Chuzenji in 2020. The two companies entered into an agreement on November 7. Marriott currently operates Ritz Carlton hotels in Tokyo, Osaka, Okinawa, and Kyoto. They are also planning to open one in the ski resort town of Niseko in Hokkaido.
The hotel will be built on the site of the former Nikko Lake Side Hotel. It is a 19,000 square meter block on the eastern side of Lake Chuzenji. The former hotel, which was built in 1968, will be demolished to make way for a new building.Read more