“Tokyo Review 025” Shinjuku area-1
Shinjuku area as an office rental market
From this issue, I would like to explore the Shinjuku area as the 4th edition of the “Tokyo Review” series following Daikanyama, Toranomon, and Nihombashi area.
Shinjuku has been a commercial area for a long time, where department stores and other shops line up around the huge hub Shinjuku station and Shinjuku 3-chome junction. At the same time, it is a large business district surrounding “Shinjuku Shin-Toshin (The skyscraper town of Shinjuku sub-center)”. However, looking from the office rental market in Tokyo, Shinjuku area is positioned in a relatively volatile area. Even as for large-scale grade A offices in the skyscraper town, most of the buildings were built in the period between the 1970s to 1990s. Their spans of columns are merely about 12m to 16m. Actually, looking at the state-of-the-art offices built in the last 15 years in the city center areas such as Marunouchi, Otemachi, Hibiya, Nihombashi, Toranomon and Akasaka etc, they have standard floors with long span more than 20m, splendid supporting facilities and cultural functions as well. They can be categorized as the “Super Grade A Offices” and in the competitiveness comparison, the offices in the Shinjuku area has to be recognized that they are being left behind.
Shibuya area has been said to have a high volatility as well, but it is in a process of big change. The process is the so-called “Revamping Shibuya” after Shibuya Hikarie’s launch in 2012 and the Tokyu Toyoko line’s starting direct operation through Tokyo Metro Fukutoshin Line in 2013. Projects are proceeding one after another. Shibuya Stream opened in the autumn of 2018 (the headquarters of Google Japan Corporation is scheduled to move in there), SHIBUYA FUKURAS and Shibuya Scramble Square will launch in the autumn of 2019, followed by Sakuragaoka redevelopment project and etc. Considering the characteristics of Shibuya, these developments may achieve their own growth by incorporating IT companies or other layers different from those of city center areas.
In this way, the trend of the growth of the office building in the Shinjuku area is somewhat losing strength in comparison to other areas, but many existing buildings such as Shinjuku Mitsui Building and Shinjuku Sumitomo Building are promoting renovation, and some new projects including “Busta Shinjuku” built on the artificial ground upon the railways nearby JR Shinjuku station are bringing new winds into the area. For instance, “LINE” headquarters moved from Shibuya Hikarie to JR Shinjuku Miraina Tower. Regarding Shinjuku Shin-Toshin, the urban structure which was made 50 years ago is still useful, and the redevelopment of neighboring blocks is also progressing along the Ome-kaido Avenue from Nishi-Shinjuku station toward Nakano-sakaue station.
Shinjuku area is as such, and I would like to explore this area for a while looking back on history. Please keep in touch!
