The Establishment of Air Rights for a Win-Win Relationship

The Dojima project was a project to build a luxury urban hotel on land owned by Daibiru in Dojimahama, which would be leased in its entirety to ANA Enterprises. The problem was that even if Daibiru wanted to construct a high-rise building, the legally allowable building space was insufficient, and they could not build it large enough to meet ANA’s requirements. Accordingly, the company looked into acquiring air rights from neighboring Club Kansai. At the time, a newspaper described the situation as follows.

“In the area around Club Kansai, the City of Osaka limits the total floor area of high-rise buildings to six times the site area on the basis of the Urban Development Act. The height of buildings is also restricted. The hotel site is about 4,600 square meters, so a building that took up the entire site would be limited to six stories. However, if combined with the neighboring clubhouse’s 1,600 square meters of area, a skyscraper could be built. So the clubhouse remains a two-story building, and the hotel leases the rights to the third floor and higher.” (Yomiuri Shimbun, September 10, 1983)

Club Kansai was also seeking funds to renovate its aging clubhouse, and the establishment of air rights enabled it to secure that funding. The establishment of air rights produced a win-win relationship between the hotel, which wanted a taller building, and the club, which wanted renovation funds.