JR Nagoya Takashimaya's food-hall rebuild reaches its fourth phase, with Kamakura Beniya's first Tokai store

JR Tokai Takashimaya, the joint venture between JR Central and Takashimaya that runs JR Nagoya Takashimaya, will reopen sections of its basement food halls on 21 and 30 October in the fourth phase of a renovation the department store has been running through the year, the company said.

The Japanese-food section on B2F reopens 21 October, followed by the Japanese- and Western-confectionery section on B1F on 30 October. Among the new arrivals are Kamakura Beniya, the Kamakura confectioner known for its Kurumicco walnut-and-caramel butter cookie, and Butter no Itoko, the Nasu-based maker of a milk-jam waffle of the same name — both opening their first stores in the Tokai region, according to JR Tokai Takashimaya. Also joining are C-Cube, a tiramisu specialist founded in 1987, and renewed shops from Hanakikyo and Ichida, both selling fresh wagashi daily.

The company said the reopened section links up with "Gourmet Street," the area opened in the renovation's third phase, completing the east side of B2F and folding departments that had previously sat apart into one run. Around 14 established names, including Isse Sekiya, Ippodo Tea and Yamamoto Nori, remain in the section.

This is the fourth publicly announced stage of a food-hall rebuild floortok has tracked since its opening phases, and the pattern is consistent: rather than one big-bang renovation, JR Nagoya Takashimaya is re-tenanting its basement in stages, using nationally recognised names most shoppers already know by reputation — Kurumicco is a fixture of Kamakura's own tourist trade — to pull first-time footfall into a food floor that has to work harder for revenue as Nagoya's competing station buildings and malls add their own gourmet halls. A depachika (department-store basement food hall) renovating its tenant mix a fourth time within a year is defending, not just refreshing, its most productive floor.