Striding through the corridors, greeting tenants, knocking on doors, pointing out the original wooden paneling in many of the rooms, she says the Silk Center Hotel was exactly what she was looking for. The place had sat vacant for 15 years before Saito and her group decided to lease it. The owners let it go for next to nothing, deliriously happy to find a tenant at last. I love these old buildings. Japanese always want to tear them down and put up something new, but these places, they have character.
Creativity takes the right atmosphere.
That's why this place is so perfect. She also knows that IT venture firms need more than a nice view-they need fast, hot communications systems capable of handling anything they can hook up. We ripped out the whole electrical and telephone system. He's a big man, standing several heads taller than most of the Japanese staff. They've done a good job.