Mitsubishi Corporation: PoC Launched in Portland, Oregon to Develop Smart Multifamily Apartment

Mar 24, 2023 11:02 JST

Source: Mitsubishi Corporation

TOKYO, Mar 24, 2023 - (JCN Newswire) - Mitsubishi Corporation (MC) is dedicated to helping develop vibrant communities that will continue to adapt and grow with the changing times. In addition to promoting sustainable growth in its urban-development operations, MC has established strategic relationships with startups in order to stimulate innovation and find solutions to many of the problems facing modern societies. These relationships are invested in MC's aim to equip urban communities with functions and services that will enhance their value.

One of MC's latest initiatives is an accelerator program that seeks to open pathways to a new and brighter future, both for itself and the communities it is helping to build. This program is designed to effectively combine the innovative ideas and technologies of startups with the management resources of MC and its group companies. Since the project's conception, MC has been recruiting partners best suited to joint business creation and examining practical ways to apply technologies that might lead to successful and profitable collaborations.

MC is now pleased to report the launch of a new partnership within this project involving HOMMA Group, Inc. (HOMMA) and the MC subsidiary Diamond Realty Investments, Inc. (DRI). Based in Silicon Valley, HOMMA is a startup tech home builder engaged in the development of next-generation smart homes, while DRI is a developer of residential and industrial properties with offices located in Dallas and Los Angeles. Their partnership has commenced a proof of concept (PoC) aimed at demonstrating the merits of smart homes. The technologies and systems will be installed in certain units of a multifamily apartment development now under construction in the South Waterfront in the city of Portland, Oregon.

The smart units(1) will be within a multifamily aparment(2) that is being jointly built by DRI, Kyuden Urban Development America, LLC, a 100% subsidiary of Kyushu Electric Power Company, Incorporated, and the US property developer, Alamo Manhattan. The aims of this PoC are to enhance the value of the properties and determine ways to incorporate these kinds of smart systems in future product plans for residential developments.

In May 2022, MC announced its latest management plan, entitled "Midterm Corporate Strategy 2024 - Creating MC Shared Value." One of the plan's objectives is to help revitalize regions in Japan through joint digital (DX) and energy (EX) transformations. The former work is invested in creating independent, distributed communities that are both vibrant and convenient for residents and visitors alike, while the latter work is invested in leveraging renewable energies to create new, carbon-neutral industries.

MC is also focusing on DX and high added-value creation in its real-estate businesses and is taking a number of steps to achieve those goals. These include conceiving new-property-value strategies that take advantage of digital technologies, collecting and applying data from both the properties it already owns and those it is currently developing, and taking steps to make all facets of its operations more efficient. MC is also enhancing its business model to marry DX-based digital platforms with EX initiatives aimed at decarbonizing our energy industry. Part of that model involves promoting as next-generation businesses smart-city-oriented urban-development projects both within and outside Japan.

For the most part, distributed communities and smart cities remain a dream for societies around the world. By forming tie-ups with partners engaged in smart, digital services that seek to enhance urban value and quality of life, introducing renewable energies that will help societies to achieve their carbon-neutral goals, and otherwise modernizing its real-estate operations, MC is taking significant strides towards realizing that dream.

(1) 340 high-rise building units and 232 low-rise building units. Slated for completion in November 2023. This PoC will be conducted in hi-rise building.
(2) These units will be equipped with a variety of smart devices and sensors designed to more efficiently control lighting and air-conditioning, using for example a time-based scene-setting function to optimize dimmer and tone controls. The smart devices and properties will be centrally managed by an application developed by HOMMA.

Inquiry Recipient:
Mitsubishi Corporation
Telephone:+81-3-3210-2171
Facsimile:+81-3-5252-7705

Source: Mitsubishi Corporation
Sectors: Real Estate & REIT, Smart Cities