The details of the commercial building of Grand Front Osaka, a redevelopment project at Osaka's Umeda North Yard, which is being undertaken by 12 developers including Mitsubishi Estate and Hankyu Railway, have been announced. The total retail floor area is approximately 44,000 square meters, with first-year sales of 40 billion yen and visitor numbers expected by the end of March 2014. The grand opening of the commercial building has been scheduled for Friday, April 26th. Based on the keywords "First in Umeda," "Originating from Umeda," and "Umeda's Largest," the building will house 266 stores covering all aspects of lifestyle, including clothing, food, housing, and knowledge. As previously reported, Grand Front Osaka will be positioned as a new city, consisting not only of the commercial building but also office buildings, hotels, condominiums, and more. Each store in the commercial building will have an average floor space of approximately 165 square meters, making it a popular choice for brands seeking flagship stores. The South and North buildings each have two basement floors and nine aboveground floors. Of these, 119 stores will be fashion-related (17,500 square meters), with 35 interior and lifestyle goods stores (13,000 square meters), 77 food and beverage stores (10,700 square meters), and 35 beauty, cosmetics, and service stores (2,800 square meters).

Fashion-related stores will include familiar select shops such as "Beams EX Demi-Luxe Beams," "Beauty & Youth United Arrows," "Ships," "Urban Research Rosso," and "nano universe." In addition, "Ron Herman" will open for the first time in the Kansai region. In addition, ZARA HOME will be opening a store in the interior goods category for the first time in Japan, along with three Western Japan flagship stores: MUJI (3,000 square meters), ACTUS (500 square meters), and Keyuca (1,400 square meters).

Even so, the area around JR Osaka Station, which is home to the Hankyu Umeda Main Branch, Hanshin Umeda Main Branch, Daimaru Umeda Branch, Lucua, JR Osaka Mitsukoshi Isetan, and Yodobashi Camera Umeda Branch, is experiencing an extraordinary oversupply of stores. At a press conference held in Osaka on January 16th to announce the details, Hankyu Corporation's Managing Director and General Manager of the Real Estate Business Division, Takehiro Sugiyama, was asked about medium-term sales targets. He replied, "We haven't set a clear target, but we are aiming for a gradual increase over the years." This response seems to include an awareness of the fierce competition that will be caused by the oversupply caused by the oversupply of stores.