As New York’s real estate market remains a key focus for foreign investors, the melting pot of cultures and traditions that the city is known for is commonly on display at opening events of different kinds.
Take the Oct. 19 event celebrating the debut of Related Cos.’ 50 Hudson Yards, the fourth-largest office building in New York and the biggest to debut during the pandemic. Guests including Stephen Ross, Related’s founder and chairman; New York Mayor Eric Adams; and Ambassador Mikio Mori of the Consulate-General of Japan in New York, each with wooden mallets in hand, broke open two giant Japanese sake barrels. The tradition, called kagami biraki, is a common Japanese practice at ceremonies and celebrations as a symbol to bring good luck.
Why at this opening? Mitsui Fudosan, billed as Japan’s largest comprehensive real estate company, is a partner with Related and Canada’s Oxford Properties Group for 50 Hudson Yards. The same Japanese tradition also was honored at Related’s opening of 55 Hudson Yards, where Mitsui is also a partner, a Related spokesperson told CoStar News. Both buildings are part of Related’s Hudson Yards, the largest U.S. private development.
In another example, Japanese apparel retailer Uniqlo carried out the tradition at various flagship New York store openings in the past.
In New York’s office market, foreign sources represent some 21% of the city’s sales volume by buyer origin, and 15% of asset value by owner origin, according to CoStar data.
Even against worries about inflation and higher interest rates, a stronger U.S. dollar against a basket of other currencies, and prospects of a looming recession, many overseas investors still bet on New York and other parts of the United States. For instance, Commerz Real, the real assets arm of Germany’s banking giant Commerzbank Group, in July opened its first U.S. office at 225 Liberty St. in lower Manhattan to have, in its CEO Henning Koch’s words, a “direct local presence” after its 2021 purchase of 100 Pearl St. nearby for more than $800 million in one of the city’s largest office transactions of the pandemic.