Simon Property Group, Inc. (SPG), the largest publicly traded retail real estate company in North America, has recently opened a premium outlet in Japan. The outlet has been developed by a JV called Chelsea Japan Co. Ltd., in which Simon Property has 40% stake. The remaining 60% of the JV is owned by Mitsubishi Estate Co. Ltd., the second largest real estate developer in Japan.

Currently only Phase I of the outlet, known as Ami Premium Outlet, spanning 225,000 square feet of gross leasable area, has been opened to the general public. Ami Premium Outlet is the eighth outlet of the JV in Japan, the others being Gotemba Premium Outlets and Sano Premium Outlets (both serving Tokyo), Rinku Premium Outlets (Osaka), Kobe-Sanda Premium Outlets (Kobe-Osaka), Sendai-Izumi Premium Outlets (Sendai), Toki Premium Outlets (Nagoya) and Tosu Premium Outlets (Fukuoka).

Ami Premium Outlet is strategically located in the close proximity of Ami-Higashi interchange

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This weekend, I had the privilege of driving around the San Francisco Bay Area. I didn't see one gas station that was selling regular gas for less that $4 a gallon. Even the so-called 'cheap' stations were selling gas for $4.29 a gallon. Diesel wasn't selling for less than $5 a gallon anywhere. It was only on May 1, only one month ago, that I thought that gas above $4 a gallon was shocking and may have just been an aberration. Now it seems that $4 a gallon gas, at least in California, is now ubiquitous. [This word is now becoming ubiquitous, so I will stop using it for a while.]