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.
Land in Ginza sells for 43 million Yen/sqm
In August, railway operator Hankyu Corporation acquired a block of vacant land in Ginza for 13.5 billion Yen (approx. 132 million USD). The purchase price worked out to be approximately 43,700,000 Yen per square meter (40,000 USD/sq.ft), or around 4,500,000 Yen per buildable square meter (4,100 USD per buildable square foot) based on a potential 3,000 square meter building.
The 308.88 square meter (3,323 sq.ft) corner block of land is located alongside Namiki Dori Avenue. It was originally the site of the 10-storey Tokyo Chusha Building, which had a total floor area of 3,000 square meters (32,280 sq.ft). The building was demolished in 2015.
Read more
Declining yields sought by investors are pushing up property prices
In late 2013, Masayoshi Son, CEO of SoftBank, purchased the Kengo Kuma-designed Tiffany Ginza Building for 32 billion Yen, resulting in a cap rate of just 2.6%. This sale arguably triggered the onset of lower cap rates. Back in 2006, Japan’s REITs had expected returns in the 2% range. They had increased to the 4% range by early 2013, but are now back to the 2 ~ 3% range.Read more
Jingumae designer building sold for 9 billion Yen
ORIX JREIT Inc. announced that they will be acquiring the trust beneficiary rights to the Terrazza Aoyama building in Jingumae at the end of September. The acquisition price is 9 billion Yen (approx. 87 million USD), excluding tax, resulting in a net operating income of 4.2%. The seller was RD Legend Alpha SPC.
The building is located alongside Gaien Nishi Street and is 400 meters from the Olympic Stadium site and 650 meters from Gaienmae Station on the Ginza Subway Line.Read more
Sony to demolish iconic Ginza building in 2017
The 50-year old Sony Building in Tokyo’s Ginza area will be demolished in 2017 to make way for a temporary park, and finally a replacement building by 2022.
The building sits on a prime 700 sqm (7,500 sq.ft) corner block of land just 180 meters from the historic Wako Building and the Mitsukoshi Department Store. The land is used as one of the government’s chika-koji annual land survey sites. In 2016, the land had a surveyed value of 34,700,000 Yen/sqm (approx. 31,000 USD/sq.ft), which would make the 700 sqm site valued at approximately 24.5 billion Yen (approx. 235 million USD). The valuation was up 18.03% from 2015, and has increased by a staggering 151% since 2002. Read more
Kioi Residence luxury rental apartment building now 80% full
Kioi Residence, the rental-only apartment building in the recently completed Tokyo Garden Terrace Kioicho complex, is proving popular with tenants with 80% of the apartments already under application. Despite facing north, the most popular apartments have been the ones overlooking the historic former residence of Prince Yi Un, which will be used for weddings and functions.
The 21-storey building was only completed last month. The 135 apartments range in size from 55 ~ 227 sqm (590 ~ 2,440 sq.ft), and rents range from 350,000 ~ 2,400,000 Yen (3,300 ~ 22,500 USD) per month. Read more
Historic Kudan Kaikan to be replaced with high-rise building
There are plans to convert the historic Kudan Kaikan building near the Imperial Palace in Tokyo into a 75-meter tall office building. Tenders will soon be open to developers, with the requirements that proposals include retaining parts of the historic facade or at least attempting to recreate the facade, and for a new building with a height of no more than 75 meters.Read more