Dentsu sold and leased back its Tokyo headquarters less than five years ago
Brookfield Asset Management is putting the final touches on a deal to buy the headquarters building of Japanese advertising giant Dentsu Group, with market sources confirming a transaction value of JPY 300 billion ($1.9 billion) for the Tokyo tower.
The North American fund manager is expected to announce its acquisition of the 48-storey Dentsu building this week, a source told Mingtiandi on Wednesday. An investor group led by developer Hulic had purchased the tower in Tokyo’s central Minato ward from Dentsu less than five years ago in a sale-leaseback transaction valuing the property at close to $3 billion, marking Japan’s largest-ever sale of a single building.
The 2002-built skyscraper comprises 1.3 million square feet (120,774 square metres) of net lettable area, with the asset poised to change hands at JPY 230,769 ($1,507) per square foot at the indicated price. The latest milestone comes just over a year after Brookfield acquired a 30 percent stake in Meguro Gajoen in a deal valuing the western Tokyo commercial complex at about JPY 160 billion.
The late-stage talks on the Dentsu deal were first reported Tuesday by Bloomberg. Brookfield had no comment when contacted Wednesday.
Ad Giant Streamlines
Designed by French architect Jean Nouvel, the Dentsu skyscraper is a landmark in Minato ward’s Shiodome district and serves as the global head office of the world’s fifth-largest ad agency.
Andrew Burych, managing partner and head of east and southeast Asia real estate at Brookfield
Dentsu said in 2021 that it was offloading the building as part of a set of measures to simplify the business, structurally and permanently lower operating expenses, enhance the efficiency of the balance sheet and maximise long-term shareholder value.
In the final weeks of 2025 the group announced the sale of its former headquarters on Tokyo’s Ginza commercial strip for JPY 30 billion ($190 million) as part of a broader move to improve its business performance and returns for investors.
The eight-storey building occupies a 696 square metre (7,492 square foot) site and was completed in 1933. Redevelopment of the site would allow for substantial expansion from the current building’s 5,800 square metres of space. Dentsu did not identify the buyer of the asset.
After Brookfield made its largest-ever bet on Japan with Meguro Gajoen, which includes the Japanese headquarters of e-commerce giant Amazon, a key executive told the Mingtiandi Tokyo Forum last November that the Canadian giant would pursue more deals across a range of opportunities in Asia’s busiest real estate market.
“Inflation is helping push up rents,” Andrew Burych, the group’s head of East Asia real estate, said at the time. “You’re starting to see that rent growth come through and the currency has fallen to a place where it’s pretty interesting to invest. So you’ve got all of these things happening at the same time.”
Shopping for Landmarks
Brookfield is adding its Tokyo trophy amid a wave of overseas fund managers buying up landmark buildings in the city.
In early 2025, US private equity titan Blackstone acquired a Chiyoda ward commercial complex, Tokyo Garden Terrace Kioicho, from Seibu Holdings for $2.6 billion, marking the largest-ever real estate acquisition by a foreign investor in Japan.
Also in last year’s first half, Hong Kong-based Gaw Capital Partners teamed with Singaporean group Patience Capital to buy the Tokyu Plaza Ginza mall for $1 billion.
Private equity majors KKR and PAG closed out 2025 by announcing their acquisition of Sapporo Real Estate in a deal valuing the brewing giant’s property assets and operations at JPY 477 billion ($3 billion). Those assets include Yebisu Garden Place, a mixed-use complex spanning an 83,000 square metre site in Shibuya ward.
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