JR East breaks ground on a two-storey Zushi station building with retail floors and a rooftop tsunami-evacuation deck
JR East has begun construction on a new two-storey commercial building in front of Zushi Station on the Shonan coast, pairing community-oriented retail with a rooftop tsunami-evacuation deck, with an opening set for spring 2028.
East Japan Railway Company (JR East) said it has begun construction on a new station building at Zushi Station in Kanagawa Prefecture, provisionally named the "(tentative) Zushi Station Building," according to a release dated September 29.
The building will rise two storeys above ground on a roughly 1,910-square-metre site, with a steel-framed structure and about 1,870 square metres of total floor area, JR East said. The company described the retail space it plans to fill the building with as a "community-oriented commercial facility," without naming specific tenants.
The station building's rooftop will double as a tsunami-evacuation area, according to JR East — a feature suited to Zushi's position directly on Sagami Bay along the Shonan coast. Design and construction is being handled by Daiwa Lease, and the finished building will be operated by JR Yokohama Shonan City Create, a JR East group company, the release said. Opening is planned for spring 2028.
JR East's retail footprint is weighted heavily toward its Tokyo-area terminals, so a two-storey building of under 2,000 square metres at Zushi is a small addition beside them. What stands out is the brief: a community-oriented commercial building that also serves as a tsunami-evacuation point, in a station-front rebuild by a JR East group operator. For developers and landlords with stations on exposed coastlines, that combination of everyday retail and a rooftop safety function is worth watching alongside the shops themselves.