Section 1. Expanding the Building Management Business

However, because the building had been used as the center of operations for an automobile manufacturer, it was not in a usable condition as a rental office building at the time of purchase, so the company undertook renovations. The main modifications included converting the first and second floors, which had been used as a showroom, a terrace, and conference rooms, into rental offices; adding a new dedicated entrance on the southeast corner of the first floor facing Midosuji, separate from the main entrance; and converting the eighth floor, which had been used as an auditorium and conference hall, into generic office space. The company commissioned Obayashi Corporation to do the construction work, which began in mid-April 1975 and was completed in early November 1976. The acquisition of the building and property cost 3.61 billion yen, and 314 million yen was spent on renovations.

The Midosuji Daibiru Building was our company’s first property acquisition, so we were mostly inexperienced when it came to preparing an acquired building for opening and then operating it. When it first opened, the only tenant that stayed on was the Osaka Branch of Toyo Kogyo on the fifth floor, but the building gradually gained tenants, and by the end of March 1978, the third year of operations, the occupancy rate had reached 80.2%. This was our first time outsourcing all administrative operations, including cleaning, facility management, security management, and in-building services to an affiliate company, Kansai Tatemono Kanri.

The second underground floor of Midosuji Daibiru Building was extensively renovated in 1989, and air conditioning upgrades and other renovations were carried out in 1996.