Historic Atami Villa sold to developer
On June 13 Mori Trust announced that they have acquired the historic holiday home of Taneji Yamazaki (1893-1983) in Atami City for an undisclosed price. Yamazaki was a successful businessman, founding several trading companies, including one which is now SMBC Friend Securities. In 1966 he founded the Yamatane Museum of Art in Tokyo, which was the first museum to feature only Japanese paintings.
The Yamatane-ryo was built in 1936. It is located just north of Kinomiya Station and about a 15 minute drive from Atami Station. It is a peaceful hillside neighbourhood with a history dating back over 1300 years. The 8,300 sqm (89,000 sq ft) property has views of Atami Bay, Hashima Island as well as the numerous firework festivals held over the bay throughout the year. Although the purchase price was not made public, similar properties in the Atami area are extremely rare and can fetch upwards of 1 billion Yen (approx. 9 million USD+).Read more
Restauranteur planning big expansion into luxury hotel business
Hiramatsu, a famous French and Italian restauranteur, announced bold plans for their newly created hotel brand.
In July, they opened The Hiramatsu Hotels & Resorts Kashikojima in Mie Prefecture. The small-luxury resort has just 8 guest suites and is targeted towards wealthy individuals with a net worth of over 100 million Yen. Room rates, which include meals prepared by renowned chefs, range from 65,000 ~ 80,000 Yen/night (640 ~ 790 USD) per person. The hotel was fully booked for the months of July and August, and reservations for 2017 are already starting to fill up. Currently the restaurant in the resort is only open to hotel guests, although they are considering opening it up to non-guest bookings.Read more
Old Atami hotel sold to Tokyo-based hotelier
Ooedo-Onsen-Monogatari Co., Ltd. acquired Hotel Mizuhatei in Atami City on September 12 for an undisclosed sum. The 11-storey hotel is located alongside the No. 135 National Highway and overlooks Sagami Bay.Read more
Atami loses two hotels in August
Two reasonably large hotels in the beachside hot spring resort area of Atami in Shizuoka Prefecture closed their doors last month.
Atami Korakuen Hotel Misaki-kan Annex
Atami Korakuen Hotel closed their Misaki-kan annex building last month, ending 65 years of operations. The hotel will continue to operate in their newer building next-door, while the former annex building will be demolished and replaced with new facilities in time for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.Read more
NTT to develop luxe hotels with fine-dining restauranteur
NTT Urban Development, the real estate development arm of the NTT communications group, is jointly developing several high-end hotels with restaurant and wedding planning company Hiramatsu.
Hiramatsu is known for their French and Italian restaurants, wedding planning, catering and wine businesses. In May 2015, they announced their foray into the hotel industry with the establishment of Hiramatsu Hotels & Resorts.
Meanwhile, NTT Urban Development has decided to pursue the development of hotels and resorts to cater to the explosive growth in the number of foreign tourists visiting Japan. On October 1, 2015, they established a hotel and resort division in their commercial department. Read more
HULIC moves into luxury ryokan business
To capitalise on the growing industry for luxury boutique-style ryokans (traditional Japanese inns), real estate giant HULIC and Kato Pleasure Group (KPG) established KH Resort Management on July 1. The company will engage in the operation of ryokans as well as providing consulting services.
In April 2015, HULIC acquired two hotels from KPG - the Hakone-Suishoen and the Atami Fufu Ryokan - for approximately 4 billion Yen (approx. 33.6 million USD at the time). The newly formed company plan to acquire up to 10 high-end ryokans in hot spring resort areas within 1.5 ~ 2 hours from central Tokyo.Read more
Luxury ryokans seeing surge in investment
With expectations of growing demand from travellers and foreign tourists, luxury ryokans (traditional Japanese inns) and hotels across Japan are now a highly sought-after target by funds and major real estate companies. This means foreign investors looking to get into the hotel market in Japan will be facing increasingly tough competition from domestic investors.
This month, real estate giant HULIC will acquire two hotel properties in Hakone and Atami from Kato Pleasure Group. HULIC’s main business is office leasing and management, but with a declining population, they have been expanding their operations to other areas of the property market.Read more