News Releases
2013

* Information contained in this news release is current as of its date of announcement. Be aware that information contained herein is subject to change without notice.

Japan's First Smart City Mixed-Use Development to Open Soon
Kashiwa-no-ha Smart City “Gate Square” Central District Progressive Opening from April 2014, with Grand Opening in July 2014

September 26, 2013
Mitsui Fudosan Co., Ltd.

Mitsui Fudosan Co., Ltd. has decided on “Gate Square” as the name for District 148 in front of Kashiwa-no-ha Campus Station, currently under development for mixed use as the central area of Kashiwa-no-ha Smart City (in the area surrounding Kashiwanoha Campus Station on the Tsukuba Express line in Kashiwa City, Chiba Prefecture). The names of related facilities and their opening schedules have also been decided.

Gate Square will form the entrance to the smart city, where a host of diverse urban functions will be concentrated. The site will be used to promote increasingly sophisticated application of various urban functions including energy, disaster readiness, transport, health, disease prevention and maintaining independence, business infrastructure, and international exchange spaces. It will also form the central locus of smart city management functions including for the surrounding blocks.
The Kashiwa-no-ha Smart City project has pioneered both hard and soft aspects of town development, bringing together cutting-edge knowledge and technology to present the world with a model for solving social issues that arise in modern cities. Integrated residences and retail properties have already begun operation in the districts surrounding the station that have been developed. The launch of Gate Square as the center of core functions for these areas, will mark the full-scale start of smart city operations for this wider inclusive area (approx. 12.7 ha). With people living in around 2,000 residences, around 1,000 workers commuting to local offices, and around 7 million visitors to the commercial zone each year, Japan's first smart city development for mixed use will create new value, industries, and innovation from this area.

Gate Square facilities will open in phases starting in April 2014. In Commercial and Office Building, the innovation office KOIL (Kashwa-no-ha Open Innovation Lab) will open alongside the retail property LaLaport KASHIWANOHA North Wing, which features a host of restaurants, fashion, and health stores that will open in stages from April onward. In the Hotel and Residences, the rental apartments and shared international exchange residences in Park Axis Kashiwa-no-ha each come with the latest in home energy management systems (HEMS) as a standard feature. Meanwhile, the new Kashiwa-no-ha Smart Center, which will undertake energy management for the whole area, will open its doors to tenants and begin operations from April. In July, the grand opening of the entire district will take place, including an accommodation facility called Mitsui Garden Hotel Kashiwa-no-ha. This hotel will cater for medium-term guests and feature a natural hot spring bathing facility, in the same Hotel and Residences, along with the Kashiwa-no-ha Conference Center to cater for events of all sizes from small meetings to international conferences.
Ahead of the opening of the Mitsui Fudosan Group's properties, the University of Tokyo's Research Building in Front of Kashiwa-no-ha Campus Station (tentative name) is scheduled to open in January 2014 as an educational research center for creating a new model for society as a result of collaboration between the public, private, and academic spheres.


Gate Square Area Site Layout


Gate Square Entrance Space (image)

Gate Square Facility Opening Schedule

Facility name Function Scheduled opening
Commercial and Office Building KOIL Innovation office April 2014
LaLaport KASHIWANOHA (North Wing) District Health Station (tentative name; 3rd floor) July 2014
Shop & Restaurant Floor (1st and 2nd floors) April 2014
Hotel and Residences Park Axis Kashiwa-no-ha International exchange residence (14th floor) April 2014
Smart rental residence (8th-13th floors)
Mitsui Garden Hotel Kashiwa-no-ha Hotel mainly for accommodation July 2014
Kashiwa-no-ha Conference Center Hotel and conference rooms July 2014
Kashiwa-no-ha Smart Center Area energy management center April 2014

Main Features of Gate Square

  • Kashiwa-no-ha Smart Center to Manage Energy for the Wider Area
    In the wider area around Kashiwa-no-ha Campus Station, including Gate Square, (approx. 12.7ha) an AEMS(Area Energy Management System) will be constructed to link each facility and power supply installation. The Kashiwa-no-ha Smart Center will be established as the central energy management center, and will open simultaneously with the start of operation of Japan's first full-scale smart grid for flexibly sharing electricity between districts. The center will analyze daily electricity use and offer specific energy-saving advice to each tenant on ways to reduce power and heating costs.


    Kashiwa-no-ha Smart Center (image)
  • Disaster Readiness to Ensure Continuity of Business and Living Needs in the Event of Disaster
    Gate Square will be built using seismic isolation construction methods* and equipped with a redundant energy supply network including a solar power generator (output: approx. 220 kW) a large lithium battery (capacity: approx. 3,800 kWh, output: approx. 500 kW), and an emergency gas-powered generator (output: approx. 2,000 kW). Even if supply from the electricity provider were to stop, the Kashiwa-no-ha Smart Center can continue to supply all of Gate Square with electric power at about 60% of average peak supply. The center will also gather disaster damage information and control the energy supply in a disaster to ensure that lifeline facilities are given priority for power supply. Moreover, the conference center will also be ready to use as an emergency shelter, so that the facility functions as a local disaster readiness center to contribute to the safety and peace of mind of the entire district.
    (*The Hotel and Residences is seismically isolated throughout, and the Commercial and Office Building is partially seismically isolated)
  • A Comfortable Environment and Spaces for Diverse Interactions with a 40-50% Reduction in CO2 Emissions
    Each facility incorporates a wealth of state-of-the-art environmental technologies as well as a passive design that uses the power of greenery and air currents to optimize the environment naturally. Gate Square features so-called “half-carbon buildings”* and achieves an overall CO2 reduction of approximately 40%, while KOIL alone has reduced emissions by about 50%. At the heart of Gate Square, the area called Center Plaza will be established to connect all the buildings and foster diverse interaction and creativity in a space with an ambience of water and greenery. *Compared to average values for Tokyo in fiscal 2005


    Center Plaza (image)
  • KOIL - An Office that Pursues Open Innovation
    KOIL comprises an Innovation Floor (6th floor) for stimulating creativity, and office floors (4th and 5th floors) designed to improve business efficiency. The 6th floor is equipped for any business scenario, with a co-working space for generating new ideas from the interaction of diverse people, a café, a shared factory fitted with electronic production tools such as a 3D printer and laser cutter, and a studio room that can also be used as an event space. This floor will also be used to run diverse networking programs and other events that bring together entrepreneurs, investors, administrators, and specialists from Japan and overseas with a view to providing comprehensive support for new value creation.
    At the same time, the office floors feature expansive balconies unrivaled in major cities, designed to promote concentration power and high-quality communication. The services of the Innovation Floor and some of the facilities are also made available to the office floors to realize a business space that offers a high degree of freedom.


    KOIL Entrance (image)

    Innovation Floor (image)
  • LaLaport KASHIWANOHA (North Wing) - A Center for Town Vitality and Health
    A major retail property will be created by linking to LaLaport KASHIWANOHA (opened November 2006) by a bridge across the road that passes in front of the station. As well as shops and restaurants, this facility is to house a District Health Station (tentative name) that will provide a comprehensive range of health services in a single location from a disease prevention and health enhancement perspective, including dental and health examination services, cooking classes, and an exercise advice service.
  • Park Axis Kashiwa-no-ha - Smart Living in an International Environment
    The state-of-the-art Kashiwa-no-ha HEMS, jointly developed with Sharp Corporation, is a standard feature in every rental residence at Park Axis Kashiwa-no-ha. In addition to functions for visualizing energy use, the system has a built-in artificial intelligence function for providing specific advice on ways to save energy without compromising on comfort and controlling household electrical systems. The top floor of the complex will be developed as an international exchange residence, where researchers from Japan and overseas, or exchange students, can live together and use a shared common space.


    Kashiwa-no-ha HEMS screen (image)

    International Exchange Residence common space (image)
  • Meetings, Training Events, Accomodation, and Sightseeing at the World's Most Advanced Smart City
    Mitsui Garden Hotel Kashiwa-no-ha and the Kashiwa-no-ha Conference Center have collaborated to offer accommodation and conference facility packages. The hotel caters to medium-term as well as short-term accommodation needs. The conference center provides a variety of conference spaces for gatherings of between about 20 to as many as 400 people. They also offer conference, seminar, and event planning in collaboration with the universities, research facilities, restaurants, and sightseeing attractions in the surrounding area to provide total support for visitors.


    Hotel guest room (image)

    Natural hot spring bathing facility (image)

    Conference center (image)

Kashiwa-no-ha Campus Station-Front District 148 Mixed-Use DevelopmentPlan Overview

Name Gate Square
Location District 148, Kashiwa City Planning Area, North Central District, Kashiwa City, Chiba Prefecture
Access 1 minutes' walk from Kashiwa-no-ha Campus Station on the Tsukuba Express Line
No. of floors Commercial and Office Building Hotel and Residences
7 floors above ground, 1 floor below ground 14 floors above ground, 1 floor below ground
Facilities KOIL (4th -6th floors)
: Rentable floor space approx. 7,980 m2

LaLaport KASHIWANOHA North Wing (1st-3rd floors)
: Rentable floor space approx. 7,382 m2
Park Axis Kashiwa-no-ha
: International Exchange Residence (14th floor) 31 residences
Rental residences (8th -13th floors) 114 residences

Mitsui Garden Kashiwa-no-ha (1st and 3rd - 7th floors): 166 rooms

Kashiwa-no-ha Smart Center (2nd floor)

Kashiwa-no-ha Conference Center (2nd floor)

Other: Hotel restaurant (1st floor)
Site area Approx. 16,768 m2 Approx. 7,577 m2
Gross floor area Approx. 32,206 m2 Approx. 23,976 m2
Structure Steel-reinforced ferroconcrete (partial seismically isolated construction) Ferroconcrete (seismically isolated construction)
Project operator Mitsui Fudosan Co., Ltd.
Design and contracting THE ZENITAKA CORPORATION
Construction Period Start: April 2011; Overall completion: April 2014 (planned)


Commercial and Office Building (Image)


Hotel and Residences (Image)

Kashiwa-no-ha Smart City Project Overview

Kashiwa-no-ha Smart City Overall Area - Overview of Land Readjustment Project

Target area Kashiwa Combined North Central District Land Readjustment Project Area
Project operator Chiba Prefecture (Land Readjustment Project)
Area Approx. 272.9 ha
Planned population Approx. 26,000
Execution timeframe August 2000 - March 2023
Planned land use Residences, hotel, retail property, offices, factories, research institutions, schools, hospitals, banks, parks, etc.

Pilot Area of Kashiwa-no-ha Smart City - Overview of Development for the Area around Kashiwa-no-ha Campus Station

Target area Kashiwa-no-ha Campus Districts 147, 148, 150, and 151
Project operator Mitsui Fudosan Group (Mitsui Fudosan Co., Ltd./Mitsui Fudosan Residential Co., Ltd.)
Area Approx. 12.7 ha
Number of residences Approx. 2,000 (approx. 1,600 residences sold as of August 2013)
Execution timeframe October 2005 - Spring 2014 (plan-approved portion)
Project cost Approx. 100 billion yen (plan-approved portion until first phase of development of District 148)
Planned land use Residences (approx. 2,000), hotel (number of rooms: 166), retail property (estimated annual visitors: approx. 7 million), offices (estimated workers: approx. 1,000), etc.


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