ITOCHU Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Yoshihisa Suzuki, President & COO; hereinafter “ITOCHU”) announced today that it has embarked on Atelier Project, a high-rise rental housingmultifamily apartment development business with Daiwa House Industry Co., Ltd. (headquartered in Osaka City; Keiichi Yoshii, President & COO; hereinafter “Daiwa House Industry”) in Dallas, Texas, of the United States of America (hereinafter “the U.S.”)
　　
In recent years, there has been a shift from owning a house to living in a rental house, especially for millennials (the generation born between 1980 and around 1995) or empty nesters (middle-aged couples whose children have left home) and there has been growing demand for multifamily apartmentrental housing in urban areas of the U.S. In response, ITOCHU has been working on a multifamily apartmentrental housing development project in the U.S., using its multifamily apartmentrental housing development/operation knowhow cultivated in Japan, which has culminated in the launch of the Project.

The Project is a joint business among ITOCHU, Daiwa House Texas Inc. (Daiwa House Texas), a U.S. local subsidiary of Daiwa House Industry and multifamily apartmentrental housing developer in the U.S. The Project is located in the Art District of downtown Dallas, where museums and concert halls line the streets. The building has 41-floors, equipped with commercial facilities on the first floor and high-rise (about 165 meters) multifamily apartmentrental housing (total units: 364).

ITOCHU has been focusing on the U.S. profit-earning real estate market, which is high in terms of growth potential, liquidity, transparency as one of the focus segments. Through the Project, ITOCHU is striving to accumulate knowhow of multifamily apartmentrental housing development in the U.S., expand its network and build a similar multifamily apartmentrental housing value chain in the U.S., similar to Japan, and actively operate the business.