The company was established in 1937 as a spin-off of the real estate holdings of the Mitsubishi zaibatsu. It was listed on the Tokyo and Osaka stock exchanges in 1953. Its largest concentration of assets is around the Marunouchi and Otemachi districts west of Tokyo Station, an area purchased by the zaibatsu from the Meiji government in 1890 and developed into an office district. Today, the area houses the headquarters of Mitsubishi Corporation, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, MUFG Bank, Ltd., Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corporation, Mitsubishi Electric, Meiji Yasuda Life, Nippon Yusen and other Mitsubishi group companies, as well as numerous other firms not affiliated with the group. In 1990 Mitsubishi Estate fully bought out Rockefeller Group in New York City, the real estate company that then fully owned Rockefeller Center. Since then the older section of the Center has been sold and the Rockefeller Group, still owned by Mitsubishi, owns the western corridor of the complex. Mitsubishi Estate led the redevelopment of the Osaka Station area between 2010 and 2013, including the Grand Front Osaka complex. Mitsubishi Estate stated in November 2014 that it had agreed to sell a 41-year-old office building in Tokyo back to Mizuho Financial Group for $1.35 billion. In 2015, Mitsubishi announced that it would hold a majority stake in a redevelopment project north of Tokyo Station that would include the tallest building in Japan, a 1,279-foot skyscraper. The targeted completion date for the project is 2027.
Investments
In 2019, Mitsubishi Estate announced a commitment of 10 billion yen in investments as part of their initiative to discover new business projects and to develop synergy with innovative businesses.
Mitsubishi Estate participated in the Series D round of funding for Astroscale, a Singapore-headquartered space debris removal startup with offices in Japan and the UK. The round was led by Japan's INCJ Ltd., and included funds operated by SBI Investment Co., Ltd and totaled US$50 million.
In May 2019, Singapore-based proptech startup announced that it had raised an undisclosed seed round of investment led by Mitsubishi Estate. This investment marked the first seed level investment for Mitsubishi Estate, as well as the first proptech startup outside of Japan to receive funding from the company.
Mitsubishi Estate announced on the 28th of January 2019, that it has accepted new shares issued by . Clean Planet is a venture firm that researches and develops "new hydrogen energy".
