French bank CLSA is said to be adding staff and will invest in some Tokyo properties.

What remains to be seen if this new enthusiasm in properties here will take a hit from all the development by the big boys, namely Mori Bldg, Sumitomo, Mitsui and Mitsubishi who continue to buy up old properties in order to clear big land plots to build new office buildings, residentials and mixed-used properties.

I was able to ask the first question to Brian Cashman, actually more of a comment: I’m surprised Immigration let you guys into the country for not signing Matsui! Everyone pretty much laughed…LOL.  Mr. Cashman was very cordial and provided a great explanation as to why, more of timing than the money issue after Godzilla got a nice offer from the Angels, they weren’t able to resign him.

Afterwards I just said I wasn’t trying to bust his chops for not signing Matsui and asked him about Johnny Damon.  He said they would no longer pursue Johnny Boy, what a bozo, the Yanks offered him $7 million per for two seasons.  He’ll be lucky to get $2~3 mill in my opinion.

There were a lot of real estate people there due to Kirkwood Capital’s connections here in Tokyo.  Met some nice people.

Spiel for Kirkwood Advisors: Kirkwood Capital Advisors, K.K. (KCA) provides real estate services to investors focusing on the Japanese market. These include: commercial mortgage brokerage, independent asset origination, principal investing and other advisory services. Our team is made up of experienced real estate finance professionals and investment bankers with a long history of success in Japan.