Gaw Buys Tokyo Office Tower From Sonny Kalsi’s Greenoak For Jpy 84b

Hong Kong private equity firm Gaw Capital Partners has acquired a 13-storey office tower in Tokyo’s posh Aoyama area, the company confirmed in a conversation with Mingtiandi today without revealing financial details of the transaction.

Gaw, which manages real estate investment funds on behalf of some of the world’s largest institutions, is purchasing the asset from New York-based GreenOak Real Estate, with the Hong Kong firm agreeing to pay JPY 84 billion ($750 million) for the property, Mingtiandi has come to understand.

The acquisition follows Gaw’s $1.3 billion final closing of its Gateway Real Estate Fund VI in October last year, which provided chairman Goodwin Gaw and his associates with the capital necessary to take part, together with partners, in four major acquisitions in the ensuing five months of assets worth a combined $3.2 billion.

The deal is Gaw Capital’s first office buy in Tokyo, and their second in the land of the rising sun following their $760 million 2017 purchase of the Minatomirai Center Building in Yokohama. The private equity fund managers, who also own two resort hotels in Okinawa, have now built a Japan portfolio of five properties including the Minato ward asset.

The 47 year-old Aoyama Building is a 302,145 square foot (28,070 square metre) grade B+/A- office tower situated between the commercial areas of Omotesando and Akasaka, 50 metres from the Aoyama-itchome subway station at the intersection of three rail lines.

British luxury car maker Aston Martin has its Japan headquarters in the building while GreenOak’s Tokyo team occupies the seventh floor.

GreenOak bought the office block in 2015, paying Mitsubishi Jisho Investment $500 million for the asset – with the company said to have achieved a three times return on their equity investment with the disposal, according to sources. Under the leadership of partner Dan Klebes, the US firm have now reduced their Tokyo portfolio to 18 office properties following the sale.

Ref: Property Report