GlobeSt.com EXCLUSIVE: International Insurer Buys Tokyo Office Project

SAN FRANCISCO-A 45,800-sf office tower under construction along one of Tokyo’s main streets is being sold to a US-based international insurance company. Manhattan-based Sonnenblick-Goldman Co. brokered the deal, rumored to be in the $30-million range. Sonnenblick’s San Francisco-based managing director Robert Stiles tells GlobeSt.com it could be a sign of things to come.

“Coupled with the recent closing of the sale of the Rihga Royal Hotel Narita, this transaction represents the second Tokyo area disposition we have arranged in less than 30 days–both to international investors,” says Stiles, declining to name the most recent buyer. “While there is significant debt and equity capital focused on Japanese investment-grade real estate, there has been a dearth of quality assets. This year is expected to be a turning point with more product likely to come to market in the coming months.”

In the most recent deal, Sonnenblick, acting as the exclusive advisor to the Revlon group of companies, arranged the sale of what will be the 2-11-16 Minami Aoyama, an 11-story office building located in Minato-ku, an attractive and fashionable part of the city. Scheduled for completion in November, the building has been master-leased for 10 years by one of Japan’s largest owners of commercial office property.