TEPCO sells hospital to real estate developer for 10 billion yen

January 24, 2014

Tepco selling hospital to Tokyo Tatemono

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2014/01/24/business/tepco-selling-hospital-to-tokyo-tatemono/#.UuJhbLQo-aQ 

JIJI, Kyodo

Tokyo Electric Power Co. has reached a deal to sell an affiliated hospital to major real estate developer Tokyo Tatemono Co. for ¥10 billion.

The building and land in the Shinanomachi district of Shinjuku Ward owned by Tokyo Denryoku Hospital will be transferred to Tokyo Tatemono on March 31.

The building is likely to be demolished because Tokyo Tatemono is considering residential and commercial use for the site.

Tepco initially planned to keep the hospital even after the March 2011 triple meltdown crisis started at its Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant.

But the utility decided to sell the facility in June 2012 when then-Vice Tokyo Gov. Naoki Inose strongly demanded its sale at the firm’s general shareholder meeting. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government is a major shareholder of Tepco.

The hospital, built in 1979, stands on a 5,609-sq.-meter site. Only Tepco employees and former employees can use the hospital, but its occupancy rate was only 30 percent.

Scandal-tainted hospital chain Tokushukai had planned to acquire the hospital and Tokushukai founder Torao Tokuda told Inose about it in November 2012.

Tokushukai joined bidding for the hospital sale but withdrew after the Tokyo District Public Prosecutor’s Office raided the group last September over its suspected illegal electioneering.

Inose, who was elected Tokyo governor in December 2012, stepped down from the post last month following the revelation he had received ¥50 million from the scandal-hit group.

Prosecutors have been investigating whether the ¥50 million was in exchange for Inose’s favorable treatment for Tokushukai’s attempt to acquire the hospital.