To promote the use of steel framing in home-building, American Silverwood's subsidiary is tying up with 13 companies around the country. These distributors will cultivate relationships with local architects and contractors and license the U.S. firm's construction technique to interested parties. The American Silverwood affiliate also is forming a business development unit to make further inroads in the commercial construction field. American Silverwood thinks that it could build as many as 150 commercial facilities this year. One of the largest commercial property managers in the United States is moving into the Japanese market.
Initial plans call for the staff to advise clients on the efficient use of space.
One property is in Yokohama. Its 86,000 square feet of space are fully leased. The other, an office building in central Tokyo with 27,000 square feet of rentable space, is 89 percent leased. For the near term at least, Kennedy-Wilson plans to continue to purchase buildings with strong cash flows and to hold these properties for five years or so.