Mori Trust acquires historic Hakone hotel
On May 18, Mori Trust announced that they had acquired the historic Gora Kansuirou Hotel in Hakone. The transaction took place in March 2017. The sale price was not disclosed.
The Gora Kansuirou Hotel was built in 1921 as the holiday home for the third son of Yataro Iwasaki, founder of Mitsubishi. The 2-storey wooden villa was built on 7 lots of land purchased in 1916 in the Gora subdivision. A member of the Kan’in-no-miya branch of the Imperial Family fell in love with the area after spending a summer as a guest at the home 1928, and purchased half of the grounds from Iwasaki to build their own villa (now the Gora Kadan Hotel).Read more
Hakone Fujiya Hotel to close for 2 years for earthquake retrofitting
Last month, Hakone’s historic landmark Fujiya Hotel announced that they will be temporarily closing the hotel from April 2018 to conduct necessary earthquake retrofitting and refurbishment. The hotel will re-open in Spring 2020.
Fujiya Hotel’s main building was built in 1891 and is registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property along with the Comfy Lodge, Flower Palace and Kikka-so Inn Annex. Famous past guests have included Charlie Chaplin, Helen Keller, John Lennon, Prince Albert, Emperor Showa and the current Emperor and Empress of Japan.
The restaurant in the 122-year old Kikka-so Annex building, which was originally a holiday villa of the Imperial Family, will continue to operate as normal during the refurbishment.Read more
Hakone modernist hotel to close next year
Hakone Hotel Kowaki-en will close its doors in January 2018, marking the end of 60 years of operations. The 224-room hotel was designed by modernist architect Yoshimura Junzo and built in 1959. The hotel’s garden dates back to 1914.
The hotel closure is due to aging buildings and facilities. The owner and operator, Fujita Kanko, operates 6 other hotels in the immediate neighbourhood, and this site is expected to form part of a larger hotel redevelopment project. It could include the adjoining Kowaki-en Horai-en Garden, which is a 16,000 sqm traditional Japanese landscape garden. Fujita Kanko acquired the garden in 2015.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
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