In 2009 Nissan spent $450 million to build a brand new headquarters and showroom in Yokohama. Opened to coincide with the Port of Yokohama’s 150th anniversary, then-president Carlos Ghosn described the seaside high-rise as a “sailboat on a voyage across an ocean of unlimited possibilities.” Now, as the company bleeds cash and desperately searches for a lifeline, it’s considering selling its HQ.
Nissan is undergoing a massive restructuring plan, closing seven of its 17 factories worldwide and laying off 20,000 employees. The company posted a net loss of $4.6 billion — yes, that’s with a “b” — in the fiscal year ending in March 2025. That’s a loss of $1,000 a minute for nearly 9 years straight.
As reported by Nikkei Asia, Nissan could get as much as $698 million for the sale of its headquarters. That doesn’t necessarily mean the cool display of heritage Nissans in the building’s vast lobby is going anywhere, though. The article states that Nissan could lease the building and continue to operate from there. Such lease-back programs aren’t rare in the business world. McLaren, Siemens, AT&T and others have all done this. It’s a quick way to free up cash without moving a bunch of personnel and equipment.
However, it’s not a certainty that they will stay in the same place. Nissan started in Yokohama, but moved to Tokyo’s ritzy Ginza district in 1968. They stayed there for 40 years before moving to Yokohama’s Minato Mirai waterfront. Designed by renowned architect Yoshio Taniguchi (who penned the Museum of Modern Art in New York City), the 22-story, 860,000-plus square foot building was built to house 2800 employees. It was a show of strength.
The opening of the new HQ coincided with the launch of the 2010 Nissan Leaf. “We celebrate a new era for our company and a new era for mobility. This is a very significant day as we look with hope and confidence toward our future,” Ghosn said at the opening ceremony.
But likely the reason that car enthusiasts around the world know of the HQ building is the sprawling 43,000 square-foot lobby showroom and gift shop. Nissan’s latest models and a selection of classics can are on constant rotation there. It’s a must-see for any petrolhead when visiting Japan.
The best part about it is that, unlike the Zama warehouse, it’s easily accessible. The building is located near Yokohama Station and is adjacent to a popular shopping area. A footbridge connecting the three locations sends 130,000 pedestrians a day past the gallery. That allows the casual passerby to easily stumble across a display that stokes the petrolhead flame.
We don’t yet know the fate of the building. Sometimes companies lease back only a portion of the office (which is a possibility considering Nissan is letting go 15 percent of their workforce). No matter what happens, we hope that there will be a place where the public can enjoy Nissan’s rich history.
Poor Nissan. I’d like to feel more sad for them, but they are suffering from self inflicted wounds. They used to have a portfolio of vehicles that made you want to have a look at them, that were interesting at worst and exciting at best. Now from top to bottom here in North America they have nothing but bland, unexciting and outdated models mostly suited to be used as rental cars. Their “halo” car, the Z, is an outdated, overweight, over priced shadow of what it once was, and the GTR never really made inroads in the US market, being very pricey for their build quality, and derided as “Play Stations” for their uninvolving high tech approach.
What Nissan needs desperately is something that evokes a passionate response, not just a transportation appliance with all the likability of a refridgerator.
I seriously hope Nissan gets some support here. They are seriously struggling, and I get how we fans are nostalgic for the retro Datsun / Nissans, but to see Nissan execs leveraging heavily on the designs of the past essentially says that their current offerings just aren’t innovative anymore.
I hope (and I think they do) Nissan realizes that their lobby showroom in Yokohama carries SIGNIFICANT presence, and although they’re financially hurting, it would behoove them to retain that vehicular presence there. Otherwise it’s like California: “Once you sell, it’s almost impossible to come back and buy again.”
…Yet another sight of rumor for Nissan to fall in the same fate as Sweden’s Saab did a decade ago, just like what happened to the original DeLorean Motor Company, but not like the Triumph marque of carmakers – hence Saab utilized the now-defunct British automaker’s inline-four engine for later use until that mill’s rights were later shipped to China’s BAIC marque as the Triumph brand was later sold to BMW with no plans to be revived as of today, Saab Automobile instead went out of business without being sold to another carmaker as the reason for the loss of Volvo Cars’ compatriot was due to the fault of GM (General Motors) as well as the addition of an irony that under Swedish bankruptcy laws meant that a party that already filed for bankruptcy could be acquired out of liquidation. Prior to the 2008 recession meant that, in an alternate timeline (ATL) as I say circa 1970s, Fiat would have instead took over Saab for the same reasons the Turin, Italy-based carmaker did similarly in ATL with (Fiat acquiring) Nissan / Datsun, Honda, Suzuki, Mazda, Citroen and Chrysler Europe / Chrysler UK instead of the last two being sold and liquidated by PSA Peugeot Citroen in our timeline (OTL) – but instead in OTL then Fiat (as well as its current Stellantis partner Peugeot) didn’t possess(ed) the mojo that Germany’s BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen (VW) had when each of them decided to market their autos outside the European / German market. (Additionally, neither Fiat, nor Jeep, nor Alfa Romeo, nor Maserati in particular have much presence in the Asia-Pacific market but instead Peugeot has such presence in the latter while Citroen have already left Australia last year which may even have Alfa and Mazzer to follow suit.)
As for Nissan’s plans to sell its Yokohama, Kanagawa headquarters, then I think it should have Stellantis to purchase it (Nissan, Mitsubishi Motors, Nissan’s Yokohama building among others) not only to expand its (Stellantis) presence in Japan and rest of Asia-Pacific for the same reasons one of its (Stellantis’) predecessors did similarly with Chrysler’s European / British division in 1978 – one of the acquisition’s factors was that PSA benefited from the Rootes Group (nickname of Chrysler Europe) to gain footing in the United Kingdom since both Peugeot and Citroen lacked presence there that time, but also just as the preceding PSA company has closed all of the Pentastar’s European operations, Stellantis would put Nissan and Mitsubishi (as well as all of Renault Group, Honda and Toyota-owned Hino, Daihatsu, Yamaha, Subaru, Mazda, Suzuki and Isuzu plus Kawasaki) out of business and have all of the aforementioned carmakers’ assets to be transferred to PSA Group and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles’ successor. (Curiously, the UK arm of PSA after acquiring Chrysler Europe that time was led by George Turnbull, who also led Hyundai Motor’s ascendancy as well enticing Toyota to assemble a manufacturing facility on British soil.)
Similar to how General Motors terminated the Daewoo name in favor of replacing it with the long-standing Chevrolet marque in 2011, which also meant that GM retained its South Korean headquarters afterwards as a result, so as to Stellantis buying Nissan and its Yokohama lot (as well as Mitsubishi and the others) then pushing them (Nissan and Mitsubishi for ex.) towards bankruptcy at the hands of Stellantis may benefit the Jeep marque for example to take Nissan’s mantle – especially with both Jeep, Fiat, Chrysler, Nissan / Datsun and Mitsubishi have such connections with Renault, plus the removal of Nissan and Mitsubishi (in particular) by Stellantis would also have Fiat (as well as Jeep, Alfa, Maserati and the struggling Lancia brand) to grow its presence in the Asian / Oceanian market with vehicles being targeted for that market would be made for that region too – as well as Japan – and also PSA Peugeot Citroen was the third European car manufacturer to build cars on Japanese soil after Renault (Hino with 4CV) and Volkswagen (Nissan with Santana) with PSA assembled a rebadged Mitsubishi Outlander (later RVR / ASX) in the latter’s Okazaki, Aichi plant as the 4007 / 4008 for Peugeot and C-Crosser / C4 Aircross for Citroen… (Probably apart from buying the whole Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance, Honda, among others in Japan’s automotive industry, then Stellantis would also acquire Kadokawa, Bushiroad, Tokyo MX, Teletama aka Television Saitama, tvk aka Television Kanagawa, GTV aka Gunma Television, Chiba TV etc. so that it would even keep making Japan a top overseas market for Stellantis as what it does already to / with McDonalds and 7-Eleven for examples in the food industry…)
Dang, as sad as I will sound, do it!
I would even go one step further and sell this off without any lease and move everything somewhere else cheap. A company operating from a lavish building while hemoraging money is akin to too much plastic surgery on a too-old person… Sell this off, rise up from your troubled times and build another statement-building when you are at your new top!
I hope they will not have to part ways with their car collection!
if they sell the buildings, Nissan will never be forgiven.