The 245-room Bespoke Hotel Shinsaibashi (Image: City Developments Ltd)
Blackstone has agreed to buy a hotel in central Osaka from Singaporean builder City Developments Ltd for JPY 14 billion ($89.3 million), as the US fund management giant continues to bulk up on Japanese hospitality assets.
The acquisition of the 256-key Bespoke Hotel Shinsaibashi in the Shinsaibashi commercial district of Chuo ward adds to Blackstone’s $1.3 billion hotel portfolio in Japan, following the purchase of the 302-key Nest Hotel Shinsaibashi from Ichigo Hotel REIT late last year.
The 2019-built hotel strengthens the Manhattan-based firm’s footprint in Japan with a prime asset, according to Daisuke Kitta, Blackstone’s head of real estate in the country, as the fund manager remains committed to identifying new opportunities and partnering with companies to deepen its Japan hospitality presence.
“This is an intersection of two of Blackstone’s high conviction investment themes — the hospitality and leisure sector and Japan,” Kitta said Tuesday in a release. “We are one of Japan’s most active foreign investors in hotels and bring a track record of investing in high-quality assets, unlocking their potential through our scale and operational expertise, and delivering value for our investors.”
World Expo Boost
Operated by Nest’s BSPK boutique brand, the Bespoke Hotel Shinsaibashi is within a five-minute walk of luxury retail on Osaka’s Midosuji Avenue and also sits near the popular Shinsaibashi-suji shopping street. The Nagahoribashi and Shinsabashi metro stations are less than six minutes away by foot.
Daisuke Kitta, head of Japan real estate at Blackstone
Blackstone’s acquisition price for the asset translates to JPY 54.7 million ($348,880) per key, with the deal expected to close by the end of December.
CDL had acquired the hotel for JPY 8.5 billion, or JPY 33.2 million per key, in August 2023, less than a year after Japan reopened its borders to visa-free international travel following the COVID crisis. The property benefited from market recovery momentum amid robust demand from international visitors, culminating with this year’s World Expo in Osaka, CDL said.
In a market with more than 98,000 hotel rooms, Osaka maintained occupancy above 80 percent during the Expo period from April to October, according to STR. Hotels in the city maintained double-digit growth in revenue per available room for the entire six-month run of the event, with RevPAR rising nearly 100 percent year-on-year during the closing week, the data provider said.
Recycling Programme
The divestment of Bespoke Hotel Shinsaibashi marks CDL’s fourth capital-recycling transaction of 2025.
The SGX-listed group controlled by billionaire Kwek Leng Beng sold its half-stake in the South Beach mixed-use development in central Singapore to Malaysia’s IOI Properties for S$2.75 billion ($2.1 billion) in a deal announced in June.
City Developments Ltd executive chairman Kwek Leng Beng (Image: Hong Leong Group Singapore)
This month saw the sale of the Piccadilly Galleria retail podium in Singapore’s Farrer Park area for S$65.46 million and the divestment of 1250 Lakeside, a 250-unit multi-family asset in California’s Silicon Valley, for $143.5 million, bringing CDL’s total contracted divestments to over S$1.8 billion in the year to date.
The group also disclosed last week that it was in talks with potential buyers of its Quayside Isle at Sentosa Cove after putting the waterfront mall up for sale in September.
CDL chief operating officer Kwek Eik Sheng said the Osaka hotel disposal showed the group’s pragmatic and disciplined approach to portfolio optimisation.
“This well-timed divestment demonstrates CDL’s ability to identify the right opportunities, taking advantage of Japan’s strong hospitality demand, and executing well to drive and unlock value since acquiring the asset just over two years ago,” he said.
AloJapan.com