Nippon Building Fund is buying up 21,607 square metres of office space in the Toyosu Bayside Cross Tower.
TSE-listed Nippon Building Fund announced on Friday that it has agreed to buy more space in a mixed-use complex developed by Mitsui Fudosan in Tokyo for JPY 43.8 billion ($303 million). The company revealed in the same statement that it will sell a commercial building in Greater Tokyo for JPY 10.9 billion.
Japan’s largest REIT by market cap is acquiring more floor space in the Toyosu Bayside Cross Tower in Tokyo from its sponsor Mitsui Fudosan. Nippon Building Fund already owns 22,346 square metres (240,530 square feet) of the 178,504 square metre building and will purchase an additional 28,467 square metres of office and retail space through the transaction scheduled to close in March.
The REIT’s manager also revealed that it will dispose of the Tsukuba Mitsui Building, an office and retail tower in the Ibaraki prefecture, as it seeks to recycle capital into more profitable assets.
“The purpose of the transaction is part of NBF’s efforts to build a strong portfolio, and improving mid to long-term and comprehensive profitability by replacing properties it owns,” the trust’s manager said in the statement.
Buying and Selling
The 38-storey Toyosu Bayside Cross Tower includes office space, retail shops, a hotel, gym and a day nursery among other facilities.
The REIT manager, which plans to finance the deal with cash on hand and loans, said that the deal will give the trust ownership of 21,607 square metres of office space and 6,860 square metres of retail space. The manager added that it plans to lease the acquired portions of the property to Mitsui Fudosan, which in turn will sublease the space to other tenants.
In September 2022, the fund’s managers acquired 9,117 square metres in the 2020-vintage building from Mitsui Fudosan for JPY 14.7 billion. In January 2023, the REIT raised its share by purchasing an additional 13,229 square metres for JPY 21.6 billion.
Nippon Building Fund executive director Koichi Nishiyama
The Tsukuba Mitsui Building is a commercial tower situated around 65 kilometres northeast of the country’s capital. Completed in 1990, the 26,266-square metre property in Tsukuba city has 19 floors above-ground and 2 below-ground.
Nippon Building Fund’s manager will offload the asset to an undisclosed third-party buyer in the transaction set to close in September.
The trust’s manager said that the building will be sold as “the result of a comprehensive judgement based on policies such as future profitability of asset management and area diversification”.
According to a June 2023 appraisal, the asset was worth JPY 8.87 billion, which was down from the JPY 8.88 billion which the REIT had paid to acquire the property in 2003.
As of November last year the asset was 99.2 percent occupied and generated around JPY 816 million in rent annually.
Japan Office Deals Continue
Nippon Building Fund has solidified its position as Japan’s largest REIT with its latest set of deals, which come two months after it announced an asset exchange with Japanese REIT Global One Real Estate Investment Corp in September.
In that pair of transactions, Nippon Building Fund purchased the 12-storey office Yodoyabashi Flex Tower in Osaka from Global One Real Estate for JPY 9.8 billion. In exchange, Global One Real Estate acquired the NBF Ueno Building, an office in Tokyo’s Taito ward, for JPY 9.9 billion.
In the same disclosure, Nippon Building Fund said that it had sold off the NBF Shibakouen Building to an undisclosed local company for JPY 8.5 billion. Located in the capital’s Minato ward, the property offers 7,083 square metres of office and residential space.
In January of last year, Nippon Building Fund made a separate deal with its sponsor to purchase 9,200 square metres of office space in the 122,280-square metre Iidabashi Grand Bloom for JPY 21.6 billion.
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