“Tokyo Review 048” Shibuya area-2
Shibuya Scramble Square and the “Bit Valley Stage 2”
Shibuya Scramble Square will have a total floor area of 270,000 square meters and is scheduled to be completed in 2027. The phase 2, central and west buildings will be constructed at the former site of the Tokyu Toyoko Department Store West and South buildings, which will be closed in March 2020.
The building that was completed recently is the phase 1, east building, accounting for more than two-thirds of the whole floors. From the 2nd basement to the 14th floor there are about 32,000 square meters for commercial facilities. In addition to the first-class brand shops, clothing, and dining, the 10th and 11th floors have lifestyle stores such as Tokyu Hands and TSUTAYA. The 3rd, 7th and the 12th floor have spaces for exhibitions and hands-on events.
The 17th to the 45th floor are rental offices. Cyber Agent, Mixi and other tenants will move in. On the 15th floor, there is an industrial exchange facility “Shibuya QWS” which is about 2,600 square meters. According to its website, it is “a members-only co-creation facility aimed at generating seeds leading to new values in the world by bringing together the kind of diverse people found only in a place like Shibuya for intercommunication and exchange, regardless of age or specialty.” Being suitable for the Scramble Square, is expected to be an “intersection of various possibility which are questioning to the world from Shibuya”.
Shibuya has been gathering IT companies from 00’s and is called “Bit Valley”. It is a pun between the word bitter (Shibuya’s Shibu) and the word bit, stands for the memory capacity of computers. DeNA moved into Hikarie, Google moved into Shibuya Stream, and GMO is planning to move into Shibuya Fukuras. IT giants are gathering in Shibuya again, and it is said that “Bit Valley Chapter 2” will start.
Shibuya Scramble Square has three business owners: Tokyu Corporation, JR East, and Tokyo Metro. Until now, the Shibuya area was recognized as a commercial cluster, and was not recognized as a business cluster in the Tokyo office market. However, just as the catch phrase for office tenant leasing is mentioning, Shibuya is “Neither Marunouchi, Roppongi, nor Toranomon.
A new stage of competition between areas has just started.
