Tomihisa Cross Comfort Tower

A 55-story residential skyscraper completed in 2015 through an urban redevelopment project in Shinjuku's Tomihisa district. Built to replace a densely packed low-rise neighborhood, it now stands as one of the tallest towers in Shinjuku City.

Use

Residential tower

Area

Shinjuku City

Completed

2015

Floors

55 above ground, 2 below

Height

179.95 m

Total floor area

approx. 138,964 m²

Developer

Nomura Real Estate, Mitsui Fudosan Residential, Sekisui House, Hankyu Real Estate

Architect

Kume Sekkei

A Tower Born from Redevelopment

On the northern edge of Shinjuku Gyoen, the Tomihisa-cho neighborhood of Shinjuku City once held a dense cluster of narrow lanes, aging wooden buildings, and limited road access inherited from the early twentieth century. That urban fabric was replaced in 2015 by Tomihisa Cross Comfort Tower — a 55-floor residential skyscraper completed as part of the Nishi-Tomihisa District Type 1 Urban Redevelopment Project. Four companies — Nomura Real Estate, Mitsui Fudosan Residential, Sekisui House, and Hankyu Real Estate — co-developed the building. Design was carried out by Kume Sekkei, with construction by Toda Construction and Penta-Ocean Construction.

The “Cross” in the project name refers to the two-building structure of the redeveloped district: the for-sale residential tower (Comfort Tower) and a rental residential building (Green Residence) share the same site, together branded as Tomihisa Cross. This pairing makes the project a residential anchor rather than a single high-rise insertion — a neighborhood rebuilt around a place to live.

Disaster Prevention as the Driving Force

The Nishi-Tomihisa district had long been identified as a fire and earthquake hazard zone. Narrow roads, densely packed structures, and inadequate evacuation routes made large-scale emergencies a serious concern for the area. The Type 1 Urban Redevelopment project that produced Tomihisa Cross was designed directly to address those conditions: consolidating fragmented lots, widening access routes, and creating publicly accessible open space where there had been none.

The resulting tower stands 55 floors above ground and 2 floors below, with a recorded building height of 179.95 meters (some sources note the roof structure reaches 191 meters). The total floor area reaches approximately 139,000 m². Under the rights-conversion method standard in Japanese urban redevelopment, original landholders exchanged their claims on the old buildings for proportional rights in the new structure — preserving some continuity of neighborhood ownership even as the physical environment was comprehensively rebuilt. The developer was the Nishi-Tomihisa District Urban Redevelopment Association; the four major real estate companies joined at the sales stage, drawing buyers from well beyond the original district.

Summary

Tomihisa Cross Comfort Tower was completed in 2015, with 55 floors above ground and a height of approximately 180 meters. It stands as one of the clearer examples of how Tokyo’s urban redevelopment framework can transform a hazard-prone low-rise district into a modern high-rise complex — while keeping some of the original community in place. From the paths around Shinjuku Gyoen, the tower is visible to the northwest. Walking the streets of Tomihisa-cho, where pockets of the older neighborhood scale still remain, gives the best sense of how radically — and how quickly — Tokyo rebuilds itself.

Related: The Parkhouse Nishishinjuku Tower 60 / Shinjuku Park Tower

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