Ginza office floor sale sees price more than double within a year
Shioi Kosan, the private asset management company for fast-food bento maker Hotto Motto, has paid 25 billion Yen (approx. 230 million USD) to acquire the 8th floor of the Ginza Six retail and commercial building in Tokyo’s Ginza district. The sale price is more than double the price that the floor sold for 7 months prior.Read more
Kasumigaseki Building turns 50 this month
Kasumigaseki Building, Japan’s first skyscraper, turned 50 on April 12. To celebrate the half-century anniversary, the exterior of the building has been lit up with an art display that runs in the evenings until the end of May. A beer garden has also been set up outside the entrance for the duration of the event.
Built in 1968 and with a height of 147 meters, this was the first building in the country to be over 100 meters tall. Nowadays it is flanked by a taller neighbor - the twin tower Central Government Building No. 7 - which was completed in 2007 and is 156m and 176m tall.Read more
Two floors in ARK Hills sell for 3 billion Yen
Two floors in ARK Mori Building - the office tower in the ARK Hills complex located in central Tokyo - have been acquired by Heiwa Real Estate REIT. Heiwa paid 3.085 billion Yen (approx. 29 million USD) for the trust beneficiary rights to the 30th and 31st floors from an unnamed seller.Read more
Shiba Park Building sells for 150 billion Yen
The Kansai Electric Power Co. and Tokyo Gas have jointly acquired the trust beneficiary rights to Shiba Park Building in central Tokyo on March 20. The acquisition price has not been made public, but insiders suggest a price somewhere in the range of 150 billion Yen (approx. 1.4 billion USD).Read more
Central Tokyo office rents increase for 49th month in a row
The average monthly office rent in central Tokyo’s business districts was 19,338 Yen per Tsubo (approx. 5,860 Yen/sqm) in January, up 4.1% from last year and the 49th month in a row to see a year-on-year increase. This is the highest level seen since October 2009. Office rents are now up 19.3% from their recent low of 16,207 Yen/Tsubo seen in December 2013, but are still 15.5% below a previous record high in mid-2008.
Vacancy rates were down 0.67 points from last year to 3.07%. This is similar to levels last seen in 2007 and a marked improvement from the average 8 ~ 9% vacancy rate seen between 2010 and 2014.Read more
Imperial Hotel up for potential redevelopment?
A nearby acquisition by Mitsui Fudosan has some industry experts suggesting that the 1100-room Imperial Hotel near Hibiya Park in downtown Tokyo may be slated for future redevelopment.
The hotel includes the main building that was built in 1970 along with a 31-storey office/hotel building at the rear that was completed in 1983. By the time of the 2020 Summer Olympics, the main building will be 50 years old. With a booming tourism industry, many of Japan’s top hoteliers are expanding, refurbishing or redeveloping their older hotels.Read more
Omotesando's Seihou Building to be redeveloped
A 51-year old retail and public housing building alongside Aoyama Dori Avenue in Omotesando will soon be rebuilt. The 10-storey Seihou Building was built in 1967 and has a total floor area of 6,075 sqm (65,000 sq ft). It is jointly owned by a subsidiary of Mizuho Bank and the Urban Renaissance Agency.
The new building will have a total floor area or 16,000 sqm (172,000 sq ft), more than 2.5 times the size of the older building.Read more