Toranomon Hills Station, the newest station on the Hibiya line since the line opened in 1964, will open on June 6th. The station will be located between Kasumigaseki and Kamiyacho Stations and will also be connected directly to the BRT (Bus High Speed Transport System) that connects the Tokyo Bay area to the city center, and to Toranomon Station on the Ginza line. The new station will also be directly connected to Toranomon Hills Station Tower, a high-rise mixed use skyscraper being developed by the Mori Building Company that will open in July 2023.
The June 6th opening date of the new station was meant to coincide with the start of Tokyo 2020 Olympics, originally scheduled to kick off on July 24th. It was meant to be a major transport hub for spectators shuttling between the game venues in the Tokyo Bay area and central Tokyo. The Games have been postponed to July 2021 due to the coronavirus, but if the urban re-development projects taking place in the Toranomon area pan out as hoped, Toranomon Hills Station will likely become a major transport hub in central Tokyo.
Re-Development of the Toranomon area
Mori Building is in the midst of carrying out a major re-development of the Toranomon area, which will involve the development of three new mixed-use towers tentatively called Toranomon Hills Business Tower, Toranomon Hills Residential Tower and Toranomon Hills Station Tower to complement the existing Toranomon Hills building.
When completed, the Toranomon Hills complex will encompass about 7.5 hectares in floor size, including the four Toranomon Hills towers, new transport stations, roads and green space.
There will be about 800,000-square meters of total floor space, approximately equivalent to that of Roppongi Hills, including about 300,000-square meters of office space, 26,000-square meters of retail space, and about 720 residential apartments.
Toranomon Hills Residential Tower
Opened in 2014, and as with all Mori residential buildings, the 52-story Toranomon Hills Residential Tower offers the very best amenities and services in city-center luxury living. This includes breathtaking views of Tokyo’s famous landmarks (Roppongi Hills, Tokyo Tower, Tokyo Bay, the Imperial Palace grounds, and Tokyo Skytree) in one continuous panorama.
The residential tower offers spacious residential units and serviced apartments with Western-style en-suite bathrooms, a spa and fitness center, childcare facilities and a 24-hour bilingual concierge on site.
The building also contains retail facilities, office space on floors 6 to 35, residences on floors 37 to 46 and Japan’s first Andaz Hotel on floors 47 to 52. There are 172 apartments. Seventy of which were made available for sale; the remainder are rental units.
For more on the re-development of the Toranomon area, please see: Mori announces major re-development for Toranomon
Appealing to foreign companies and residents
Toranomon has a high concentration of foreign-affiliated companies, embassies, foreign residents. The re-development of the area and the new station are part of Tokyo’s efforts to increase the livability and convenience of the district. Tokyo authorities also have a long-term strategy to raise the competitiveness of the city as a place for international corporate headquarters, including a living environment that is attractive to ex-pats.
Coronavirus
However, observers have pointed out that if social distancing measures have to be implemented long-term (including the wider adoption of teleworking), the Toranomon re-development project may not be able to attract office tenants in the numbers originally hoped for.
Sources: Tokyo Metro, Mori Building Company, Nikkei newspaper, June 2, 2020 (in Japanese)
Lead photo: Tokyo-onaka.com