L.A. Firm to Join in Building Japan Hotel
Tishman Realty & Construction said Friday that it will become the first U.S. company to participate in a private construction project in Japan, through a joint venture with Aoki Corp.
The Los Angeles firm said its wholly owned subsidiary, Tishman Construction Corp. of Japan, will team up with Tokyo-based Aoki to build a 400-room, $200-million luxury high-rise hotel in Osaka. The hotel will be operated by Westin Hotels & Resorts, a Seattle subsidiary of Aoki.
“This could well signal the opening of the marketplace for Americans,” said Abraham S. Bolsky, president and chief executive of Tishman of California. He said the first phase of the hotel project is valued at about $100 million.
Under an agreement reached last May between the United States and Japan, U.S. firms are allowed to bid for Japanese construction projects in the private sector. American firms have not been successful in bidding for public projects in Japan, such as the new airport in Kansai and the Tokyo Bay Bridge. Tishman’s Japanese unit received a license from the Japanese government last October to do both public and private construction.
The new 430,000-square-foot hotel will be built on land owned by Aoki, an international construction firm. The parcel, adjacent to Osaka Station, the city’s main railway terminal, is part of an urban renewal plan, consisting of a hotel, office and retail space.
Tishman and Aoki together will oversee the construction, including design analysis, planning, scheduling and budgeting. Aoki, however, will serve as general contractor. A Tishman construction management crew will be assigned to Osaka during the scheduled three-year construction project, which will begin in April, 1990.
In building the hotel and office complex, Tishman will bring to Japan for the first time American construction management techniques. The U.S. technique is “fast tracked,” which means that construction begins before the structure’s design is completed, which usually results in time and cost savings.
“The Japanese firms have not traditionally used the fast-track method of construction,” explained Bolsky. “It would be our task to organize that, once we’re past the preconstruction phase.” He said that much of the planning can be done from the United States.
Tishman will station construction management personnel in Osaka during the entire period of design and construction.
Tishman and Aoki have worked together on projects since 1984, including a Los Angeles office building known as the Olympic Centre.
