On October 1, 2026, Nippon Steel Kowa Real Estate (日鉄興和不動産) announced the “Kobiki Building Hotel Project (tentative name)” ((仮称)木挽ビルホテル計画). The hotel will rise on land the company owns in Ginza 7-chome, Chuo Ward, Tokyo, with 12 floors above ground, one basement level and 130 guest rooms. Its structure mixes steel (S), reinforced concrete (RC) and timber, and it will be the company’s first high-rise hybrid timber building. The project was selected for the Leading Projects track of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) FY2026 “Program to Promote High-Quality Timber Buildings” (優良木造建築物等整備推進事業), with a subsidy cap of ¥300 million. Construction is scheduled to start in October 2026 and the hotel to open in October 2029. Timber hotels in Japan have so far stayed low-rise. This article looks at what it takes for one to reach mid- and high-rise heights in central Tokyo, using four pillars: structure, cost (the subsidy), time (the construction period) and revenue (floor-area allocation and rate band). We then set the project against existing supply within 1 km of the Ginza 7-chome site and the estimated achieved ADR in Chuo Ward.

The Plan — 12 Floors and 130 Rooms on a Narrow Site, with More Than 350㎥ of Timber

We start with the outline of the plan as announced. The developer, Nippon Steel Kowa Real Estate, will replace an existing office building on land it has long owned in Ginza 7-chome (lot numbers 205-1 and 205-12) with a hotel aimed at longer stays. The site is a 4-minute walk from Higashi-Ginza Station on the Tokyo Metro Hibiya Line and the Toei Asakusa Line. The building will house a hotel, a restaurant and a parking garage, with a gross floor area of about 9,742㎡ (9,742.82㎡ in MLIT’s selection list), a building footprint of about 1,047㎡ and a maximum height of about 42 m. Mitsubishi Jisho Design handles design and supervision, Nomura Co., Ltd. handles interior design, and a Kumagai Gumi and Sumitomo Forestry joint venture handles construction.

Two figures have been published for timber use. The developer’s release gives total timber use of “over 350㎥”, which is at least 2.7㎥ per room across 130 rooms. MLIT’s selection list instead gives timber use per unit of floor area, 0.106㎥/㎡. Multiplied by 9,742.82㎡ GFA, that is about 1,030㎥. The two figures may cover different things: structural members only, or also wood-finished components and finishes. In this article we treat the developer’s “over 350㎥” as a floor and use MLIT’s ratio only to compare with the other project selected at the same time. That project, Kajima Corporation’s office building in Sendai (9 floors above ground, 8,889.26㎡ GFA), was also selected for the Leading Projects track and scores 0.405㎥/㎡. Its horizontal hybrid layout, with the office floor area itself built in timber, pushes the ratio up. Hotels face stricter limits than offices on sound insulation, fire resistance and building services in guest rooms, so a lower timber ratio is best read as a difference of use.

Structure — How a Timber Hotel Gets Past Three Floors to Twelve

Japan’s Statistics on Building Construction Starts show that most timber hotels stay at three floors or fewer. HotelBank’s earlier count of 7,432 buildings confirmed this. This project sits well apart from that average. It builds timber into part of the main structure and still reaches 12 floors and 42 m. To do so it layers several technologies, as described in MLIT’s review comments. Here we set out only what has been made public.

For seismic performance, the design adds timber frames at both ends of the building on top of CLT (cross-laminated timber) shear walls. On the facade, timber braces are placed outside the planes of the main structure. These braces are not just decorative. In a major earthquake the steel is designed to yield first, so the whole building takes the structural characteristic factor (Ds) of a steel structure, 0.25. The design does not count on the timber deforming plastically. Instead the steel absorbs the energy. That division of labor lets the timber parts sit comfortably within the load path of a taller building. For fire resistance, the project uses “Dresswood”, a timber-clad fire-resistant CFT column with a 2-hour rating, and “Coolwood” beams with a 1.5-hour rating. Where steel and timber beams are combined, openings through the steel portion carry building-services routes. The CLT shear walls double as sound-insulating partitions, so one component delivers both fire and acoustic performance.

The approach contrasts with Japan’s earlier high-rise hybrid timber hotel. The Royal Park Canvas Sapporo Odori Park (ザ ロイヤルパーク キャンバス 札幌大通公園) opened in Sapporo in October 2021, with 11 floors above ground, 1 basement, 134 rooms and 6,157.06㎡ GFA. It is stacked vertically: floors 1–7 are reinforced concrete with timber finishes, floor 8 is an RC-timber hybrid and floors 9–11 are pure timber. Its published timber use in the structural frame is about 1,060㎥. The Ginza project does not switch structure between lower and upper floors. Instead it distributes CLT shear walls, timber braces and fire-clad timber-steel composite members throughout the building. Both are “high-rise hybrid timber hotels”, but the design thinking is different.

Put together, the condition for reaching 12 floors is not to make timber the star of the building. It is to state clearly how timber and steel/RC share the work on fire resistance, seismic performance and sound insulation. MLIT’s review praised four things: the design in which the steel yields before the timber braces, the 2-hour timber-clad CFT columns, CLT shear walls that also insulate sound, and the use of local wood, with Kamaishi timber graded to set the strength of the glulam. All of these are about how existing technologies are combined. For developers planning mid-sized hotels in central Tokyo, the selection shows that the choice of structure is no longer timber versus non-timber. It is now a question of allocation: which parts of the building to make in timber, and how far to go.

Cost — Converting the Leading Projects Track’s Subsidy Rate and ¥300M Cap to a Per-Room Figure

The second pillar is cost. The investment amount has not been disclosed, so we do not estimate it. We only convert the published subsidy framework into per-room and per-㎡ figures. According to MLIT’s Attachment 2, the FY2026 Program to Promote High-Quality Timber Buildings has two tracks: a Standard track (普及枠) and a Leading Projects track (先導枠). On the Leading Projects track, the subsidy covers up to 1/2 of the survey and design costs for timber construction. For construction, it covers up to 1/2 of the extra cost of building in timber, or up to 10% of construction costs, capped at ¥300 million. The Standard track covers up to 1/2 of design costs and up to 1/3 of the extra timber cost or 7% of construction costs, capped at ¥200 million. The Leading Projects track is more generous on both rate and cap.

Dividing the ¥300M cap by 130 rooms gives ¥2.308M per room. Dividing it by 9,742.82㎡ GFA gives approximately ¥31,000 per ㎡. That is the level at which the cap binds. The actual grant is whichever is smaller: the cap, or half of the extra cost of building in timber. Put the other way, if the extra cost is under ¥600M, the subsidy stops at half of it, and above ¥600M the ¥300M cap applies. The project’s extra cost has not been disclosed, so we cannot tell which limit applies.

To gauge how large the cap is relative to total construction cost, we can use the 2025 national construction cost per tsubo by structure from MLIT’s Statistics on Building Construction Starts: ¥2.405M for steel and ¥2.026M for RC. 9,742.82㎡ GFA is about 2,947 tsubo, which gives a non-timber benchmark construction cost of ¥5.97B–¥7.09B. The ¥300M cap is 4.2–5.0% of that range, so the “up to 10% of construction costs” condition never binds before the cap. In other words, the ¥300M on the Leading Projects track is enough to soften the extra cost of building in timber. It is not large enough to absorb swings in total construction cost, which fall under price-escalation clauses in construction contracts. Note that this conversion uses national average costs per tsubo from the construction-starts statistics, which differ from actual costs for high-rise hybrid buildings in central Tokyo.

Because the extra cost has not been disclosed, the table below assumes a range of ¥200M to ¥1B and shows mechanically how the subsidy would move, using only the published rate and cap. Up to ¥600M of extra cost, the subsidy is half of the extra cost. Above ¥600M, it stops at the ¥300M cap. Whether the benchmark uses RC or steel, the subsidy never exceeds 5.0% of construction cost.

Time — 36 Months from Start to Opening Falls Between Hotel-Only and Mixed-Use Projects

The third pillar is time. Construction is planned to start in October 2026 and the hotel to open in October 2029, so the project expects 36 months (3.00 years) from start to opening. In our earlier study, “Hotel Build Times: 2.80-Year Median, 1.96 Solo vs 4.00 Mixed-Use”, hotel-only projects had a median of 1.96 years (about 23.5 months, N=31). Mixed-use projects combined with offices or housing had a median of 4.00 years (48 months, N=25), and the overall median was 2.80 years (about 33.6 months, N=56). This project contains only a hotel, a restaurant and a garage, yet its schedule is more than 12 months longer than the hotel-only median and a little longer than the overall median.

The public materials suggest several reasons for the gap. First, the project is a rebuild. Demolishing the existing building and building new on a long, narrow site tends to take longer than building on vacant land. Second, timber components are prepared differently from steel, with factory processing followed by on-site erection. Fabricating the CLT shear walls and fire-clad timber-steel composite members, and obtaining ministerial certification for them, adds steps to the schedule. Third, the release mentions the ECI (Early Contractor Involvement) method, in which the contractor collaborates on design from the design stage. ECI deliberately lengthens design to reduce rework during construction, so the post-start schedule cannot simply be compared with other projects. All of these are readings of the public materials; the actual construction schedule has not been published.

The October 2029 opening also matters for the supply timeline. Based on building permit applications, two mixed-use projects in Chuo Ward are expected to finish first: Yaesu 1-chome (a block integrated with Otemachi 2-chome, 100 hotel rooms, completion planned December 2027) and the Nihonbashi 1-chome Central District (197 hotel rooms, completion planned October 2027). This project will open about two years after them. Building-plan statistics capture permit applications filed one to two years before opening, so the count of projects due in 2029 will grow as new applications come in. Today’s count for 2029 and later should be read as a lower bound.

Location and Supply — Commercial Zone with 700% FAR; Hotels within 1 km Rose from 69 to 127 in 10 Years

MLIT’s Real Estate Information Library shows that the site is in a commercial zone with a 700% floor area ratio (FAR) and an 80% building coverage ratio. The nearest official land price point is Ginza 7-5-2 (Chuo 5-54), where the 2026 official land price was ¥9.39M/㎡, up 10.3% year on year. Across the 29 commercial points within 1 km of the site, the median is ¥11.7M/㎡ and the median YoY change is +10.4%. Prices range more than 30-fold, from ¥67.1M/㎡ at Ginza 4-2-4 on Chuo-dori to ¥2.06M/㎡ in Tsukiji 3-chome. The site is on the Kobikicho side, one block east of Chuo-dori, and its land price is close to the 1 km median.

Within 1 km of the site, existing hotel supply grew from 69 properties and 13,672 rooms in 2016 to 127 properties and 19,273 rooms in 2026, a 41% increase in rooms over 10 years. Most of the growth came in 2017–2020. Since 2021, including a 650-room drop in 2022, net growth over six years has been only about 550 rooms (110–550 rooms in the years that grew), so supply has moved into a slower phase. Within 500 m, there are 34 properties with 6,311 rooms, nearly double the 17 properties and 3,479 rooms of 2016. The project’s 130 rooms equal 0.7% of existing rooms within 1 km and 2.1% within 500 m, so the supply impact is small. Counting operating properties one by one as of October 12, 2026 gives 127 properties and 19,442 rooms within 1 km, closely matching the year-end count of 127 properties and 19,273 rooms. For a view of pipeline pressure across Tokyo’s 23 wards against existing stock, see Tokyo 23 Wards Supply Pressure 2026.

By room count, the 34 properties within 500 m are mainly limited-service hotels of 200–360 rooms. Those closest in size to 130 rooms include Mitsui Garden Hotel Ginza Tsukiji (183 rooms), The Royal Park Canvas Ginza 8 (121 rooms), Hotel Granbach Tokyo Ginza (144 rooms) and Quintessa Hotel Tokyo Ginza (134 rooms). The project’s pitch of “groups and medium- to long-term stays” extends the three existing “&Here” properties: Ueno (145 rooms), Osaka Namba (89 rooms) and Shinjuku (65 rooms). Within 500 m, positioning will depend more on the type of stay than on room count.

Revenue — Allocating 75㎡ GFA per Room, and Where That Sits in Chuo Ward’s Rate Bands

The fourth pillar is revenue. We do not recalculate the required ADR here. We only set out what the published floor-area allocation and Chuo Ward’s rate bands tell us. Dividing 9,742.82㎡ GFA by 130 rooms gives 74.9㎡ GFA per room, on a total-GFA basis that includes the restaurant, parking garage and common areas. The earlier Sapporo Odori Park example (6,157.06㎡, 134 rooms) has 45.9㎡ per room, and its Superior rooms are 23–23.5㎡. The Ginza project’s 74.9㎡ per room is 1.6 times Sapporo’s. Even after deducting the restaurant and garage floor area, this suggests guest rooms sized in a generous range suited to groups and medium- to long-term stays. The three existing “&Here” properties have focused on rooms with kitchens that sleep several guests; Shinjuku’s 65 rooms include 44 residential rooms and 2 suites (per HotelBank’s interview). For a project billed as the brand’s upper grade, a generous floor-area allocation is consistent with this format.

On rates, Chuo Ward’s estimated achieved ADR averaged ¥19,047 over the 12 months from October 2025 to September 2026 (148–152 properties). The most recent month, September 2026, was ¥17,270, down 2.4% year on year. By property type, the 12-month average was ¥17,900 for business hotels (127–129 properties) and ¥40,400 for city hotels (19–21 properties), so Chuo Ward’s rates split into these two tiers. Within 500 m of the site, 26 properties have estimated achieved ADR for all 12 months. Their median is ¥30,624, with 15 properties in the ¥25,000–¥50,000 band, 2 above ¥50,000 and 3 below ¥15,000. The area around Ginza 7-chome is clearly in a higher rate band than the Chuo Ward average, and the ¥25,000–¥50,000 band is its thickest tier.

Against this distribution, 130 rooms is on the small side within 500 m. An upper-grade residential product is likely to sit between the existing ¥25,000–¥50,000 limited-service hotels and the full-service hotels above ¥50,000. Medium- to long-term stays and group use draw different demand from business hotels built around single and twin rooms. Multi-night stays make rates easier to smooth, while the rate per room can be set high relative to the number of guests. If the hybrid timber structure can be turned into guest experience through the feel of wood in rooms and common areas, it could become a point of difference even within the same rate band. However, Chuo Ward’s estimated achieved ADR has been below the same month of the prior year since June 2026, and planning should assume that the rate band at opening in 2029 will differ from today’s.

Environmental Certification — How Lenders and Local Governments Read LEED Gold and SITES Gold

The project plans to obtain LEED Gold (an international certification for the environmental performance of buildings) and SITES Gold (an international certification for landscapes and outdoor spaces). Among hotels in Japan, a hotel inside a commercial complex in Kyoto is publicly known to have obtained LEED Silver in 2020. Few new hotels, however, have announced plans for Gold at the start of construction. The release says the project will pursue lower CO₂ emissions through timber construction, a rooftop garden, attention to biodiversity and better energy efficiency across architecture, landscape and operations. Notably, the choice of structure and the pursuit of certification are presented as a single design policy.

For lenders and funds with ESG requirements, a stated plan to obtain third-party certification is easy to cite when judging eligibility for loans or equity. For local governments and the forestry sector, the sourcing model offers a practical reference for supplying local wood to high-rise buildings in central Tokyo: working with the Kamaishi Forest Owners’ Cooperative, the project grades Kamaishi timber and sets the strength of the glulam. The Leading Projects track’s requirements include measures that support reforestation or reuse and outreach to promote timber buildings, so the certification and subsidy requirements overlap in many places.

Summary — Four Conditions for Timber Hotels to Reach Mid- and High-Rise Heights in Central Tokyo

The Kobiki Building Hotel Project (tentative) is a concrete example of how one hybrid design can get past the construction-starts average, where timber hotels stop at three floors. On structure, it states how timber and steel/RC divide the work on fire resistance, seismic performance and sound insulation. On cost, the published framework of the Leading Projects track, a 1/2 subsidy rate capped at ¥300M, amounts to ¥2.308M per room. On time, the ECI method and the rebuild process account for a 36-month schedule that is long for a single-use project. On revenue, an allocation of 74.9㎡ GFA per room fits a product for medium- to long-term stays. In an area where existing supply is concentrated in the ¥25,000–¥50,000 band within 500 m, wood interiors and the type of stay offer room to stand out.

For developers planning mid-sized hotels in central Tokyo, there are three takeaways. First, at the start of design, treat the choice of structure as an allocation by building element, not a choice between pure timber and non-timber. Second, convert the subsidy cap and rate into per-room figures and build them into the financing plan. Third, do not estimate the schedule from the hotel-only median; add time for fabricating and certifying timber components and for the contracting method. How Chuo Ward’s rate bands move before the October 2029 opening is a separate question. Either way, the project gives local governments and the forestry sector promoting timber use, and capital providers with ESG requirements, one more central-Tokyo hotel case to point to.

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