Spotlight: Tokyo: Tokyo Rising
Tokyo Rising A new flock of upscale skyscrapers takes shape in Japan’s capital.
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Everyone experiences the galvanized metropolis of Tokyo in a different, personal way. Architect Rem Koolhaas has called it "the city of eternal eccentricity." Folklorist Miyao Shigeo has explained Tokyo’s distinctive energy and bustle as "the heartbeats and laboring breaths of a vigorous city striving to catch up with its citizens."Those citizens, more than 12.7 million by the latest estimate, are growing in number. For the first time in 28 years, 10 percent of Japan’s population lives in the capital. The increased concentration of urban dwellers—an influx of 91,000 people in 2007 alone—is a surge not seen since the bubble economy of the late 1980s. More businesses are converging, more foreign investors are snapping up property parcels, and more tourists are arriving each year.
Today, Tokyo is still perceived as different and exotic, yet less intimidating than in years past. It has become a one-stop destination for the top fashion brands, and its restaurants boast more Michelin stars than New York and Paris combined. As the world’s affluent baby boomers are set to retire in the next few years, analysts predict both a rise in the number of single renters and those who elect to rent rather than own property here. With nowhere to build but upward, the new mandate for the city’s high-rise residential towers is to successfully integrate existing business and cultural districts with parks and transit stations.
The country’s Real Estate Economic Institute Co. projects that 312 new residential towers of 20 stories or more, comprising some 109,307 units, will come to market in Tokyo’s greater metropolitan area during or following the 2008 fiscal year—an increase of 76 developments and 18,661 units over the previous year. Nearly half of Japan’s new real estate inventory in the pipeline lies within the 23 wards of Tokyo proper. Many of the city’s most exclusive residential neighborhoods—including Akasaka, Azabu Juban, Roppongi, and Shirokane—fall within Minato Ward, which has a concentration of embassies and foreign firms and also is home to the majority of international residents.
As the number of urban dwellers increases, so does the demand for greater choice and comfort in accommodations. At the high-end level, more people prefer to lease rather than buy, and, consequently, the rental housing market has witnessed a move toward larger rooms and added amenities. The market offers both furnished and unfurnished options, and the kitchen systems, utilities, and other equipment specifications typically read like an A-list of the finest European makers. In March 2007, the first private residences operated by a five-star hotel opened in the city’s edgiest mixed-use development, Tokyo Midtown, which is a mini-city in itself, complete with a medical center run in collaboration with Johns Hopkins Medicine, museums, restaurants, and upscale shops. The entire Tokyo Midtown site, which occupies 20 acres and offers 5 million square feet of mixed-use space, was master-designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. From an urban-planning perspective, design guru Tyler Brûlé pronounced both the array of choice and the level of design to be "the new international benchmark."
Here, the Park Residences at the Ritz-Carlton, Tokyo offers spacious floor plans with interior design by Massachusetts-based Frank Nicholson and services reflecting the high hospitality standards of the adjacent hotel. Residents enjoy special privileges at the hotel, including access to the property’s chefs for private dinner parties. General manager Ricco DeBlank will even walk their de rigueur mini doxies and toy poodles. (Pets also are provided with a dedicated entrance and grooming room.)
The Park Residences has proven to be highly popular with families, while the Tokyo Midtown Residences, another of the development’s high-end real estate options, is targeted at young professionals. One project sure to capture the attention of a range of potential buyers is now under construction in Azabudai, sharing the site of the prestigious Tokyo American Club. The architectural firm of Pelli Clarke Pelli is master-designing new facilities for the 80-year-old club, as well as a 12-story, 160-unit condominium complex developed by Mitsubishi Estate, which is keeping details of the project—scheduled for completion in 2010—under wraps.
Those interested in renting in one of Tokyo’s top towers need not wait. Mori
Building Co., the noted developer of the expansive Roppongi Hills complex,
opened Akasaka the
Residence in February on a
redeveloped site that also comprises the Tokyo Broadcasting System headquarters.
At press time, another of the company’s developments, Akasaka Tower Residence Top of the
Hill, was slated to open in August.
