Feature Post-Quake Performance Enhancements Developers and operators contribute to disaster prevention and BCP

In the aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake, developers are stepping up efforts to further enhance the disaster prevention performance of buildings to ref lect the heightening awareness of business continuity plans (BCP) among tenants.

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• 05.16.2012 Orix JREIT purchases Togoshi, Shinagawa-ku apartments for Y2.6bn Orix JREIT acquired Belle Face Togoshi Statio, a rental apartment building in Togoshi, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo. The price was 2.64 billion yen [$32 million] and the seller was Orix Real Estate, the REIT’s sponsor. With this acquisition, the AUM of the REIT amounts to 350.3 billion yen [$4.2 billion] in 67 properties on an acquisition price basis.

• 05.15.2012 Kagome acquires Komae City land for Y3bn Kagome Real Estate, a subsidiary of food maker Kagome, acquired the former site of the Kagome Distribution Service Tamagawa Distribution Center located in Komae City, Tokyo, together with an adjacent site occupied by a family restaurant. The seller was Kagome. The site has a land area of 13,029 m2. Kagome Distribution Service operated a distribution center on the site until January 2012. The price was 3.19 billion yen [$39 million], which is equivalent to approximately 240,000 yen [$2,900] per m2.

• 05.14.2012 Office development to sharply decrease from 2013 Developer Mori Trust released the results of its "Survey of Large Office Building Supply in the 23 Wards of Tokyo ’12" in May 2012. According to the survey, which targeted buildings with 10,000 m2 or more of gross office space, the development of large office buildings in the 23 wards of Tokyo is expected to sharply decrease in and after 2013. While the share of those developments in the three central wards (Chiyoda, Chuo and Minato) of Tokyo will expand, offices in Koto-ku, a bay area in the east of Tokyo, will drastically decrease, clearly exhibiting the trend of offices returning to central Tokyo.

• 05.14.2012 Kawasaki Heavy Industries to lease entire TIS Takeshiba Building Kawasaki Heavy Industries, a manufacturer of aircraft, ships and motorcycles, will relocate its Tokyo Head Office to the tentatively named Hamamatsucho Building (formerly the TIS Takeshiba Building) in Kaigan, Minato-ku, Tokyo. The company will be moving from the World Trade Center Building (Sekai Boeki Center Building) in Hamamatsucho, Minato-ku between the end of November and mid-December 2012.

• 05.11.2012 Mitsubishi achieves 45% CO2 reduction at Nihonbashi office project Mitsubishi Estate will start construction of a rental office building that incorporates advanced environmental technologies in June 2012. The tentatively named Kayabacho Project, will be constructed in Nihonbashi-Kayabacho, Chuo-ku, Tokyo. The new building will incorporate a natural ventilation system and sunshield louvers to reduce CO2-converted energy consumption by about 45% compared with typical office buildings.

• 05.10.2012 Tokyu Land incorporating Omotesando retail into new REIT Tokyu Land announced that it will incorporate 18 properties including Tokyu Plaza Omotesando Harajuku into its Activia Properties REIT, which it sponsors. The total sale price of the properties is about 170 billion yen [$2.1 billion]. The REIT previously announced that it plans to go public by the end of 2012. Tokyu Plaza Omotesando Harajuku, which was just opened on April 18, is a retail facility built on the former site of the GAP Harajuku store.

• 05.10.2012 Citibank Japan awarded sixth LEED certification Citibank Japan Shinjuku Higashiguchi (East) Branch has received the Gold rating under the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) building environmental performance assessment and certification system LEED. This is the sixth LEED certification for Citibank facilities in Japan. Going forward, Citibank Japan intends to increase the number of LEED certified properties. Regarding LEED strategy, we interviewed Duncan Macintyre, Senior Vice President at Citigroup Services Japan.

• 05.09.2012 Hotel Seiyo Ginza being sold for Y18bn Tokyo Theatres, which promotes and distributes movies, announced that it will sell the Ginza Theatres Building in Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo. The price is 17.89 billion yen [$220 million]. The buyer is a Japanese general company, but the name was not disclosed. The building has 12 floors above ground and two below with 18,951 m2 of gross floor area. As of May 2012, the building was occupied by Hotel Seiyo Ginza, movie theater Ginza Theatres Cinema, Le Theater Ginza by Parco, restaurants and retail shops.

• 05.09.2012 Morgan Stanley sells Nagoya office building Tokai Holdings TMK, which is believed to be a special purpose company belonging to the Morgan Stanley Group, sold the Shirakawa Building Annex, a rental office building in Sakae, Naka-ku, Nagoya City for 1.5 billion yen [$18 million]. The buyer was real estate company R.T. Kaihatsu, a subsidiary of membership resort hotel operator Resorttrust.