Sapporo Yurigahara Park Park-PFI LiLiLi — Sapporo's First Case, Community-Led SPV Park Operation

Yurigahara Park is a large urban park located in Kita Ward, Sapporo, serving as a resting place for Sapporo residents with functions for flower and greenery displays + events. Sapporo City applied Park-PFI (Public Offering Management System) to this park and selected the special purpose company 'YURIGAHARA PARK FUTURE LAB' as the certified plan submitter; the park interaction facility 'LiLiLi' opened on October 25, 2025. This is Sapporo City's first Park-PFI project.

The operating entity "YURIGAHARA PARK FUTURE LAB" initially operated as a consortium and was converted into a special purpose company in March 2025. Its lead is the general incorporated association SAPPORO PLACEMAKING LABO, with Marumi Coffee Ltd., Soushin Construction Co., Ltd., Donguri HD Co., Ltd., Ibic Foods Co., Ltd., and Kokusaku Co., Ltd. participating as constituent companies (commons Co., Ltd. joined later). The distinctive feature is that a community placemaking organization and local companies—rather than a major real estate developer—form the core.

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Yurigahara Park Park-PFI's distinctive feature is its locally-centered composition led by a community placemaking organization. In nationwide Park-PFI cases, major real estate developers (Mitsui, Mitsubishi, Tokyu, Daiwa Lease, etc.) commonly serve as lead companies, but at Yurigahara Park, a community placemaking organization and Sapporo / Hokkaido companies form the core.

The lead, SAPPORO PLACEMAKING LABO, is an organization handling community placemaking. Marumi Coffee Ltd. handles dining and attraction as a Sapporo-founded coffee company, while Soushin Construction Co., Ltd. handles facility development. Multiple local companies participate across their respective fields in a complementary composition.

The composition yields three significances. First, by forming the project with local companies and a community organization, direct ripple effects on the local economy arise. Second, without major-developer leadership, operational decisions can more easily match community needs. Third, Marumi Coffee's Sapporo brand power can be leveraged as an attraction core.

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Yurigahara Park Park-PFI adopts an SPV (special purpose company) scheme led by a community placemaking organization. A form in which a community organization and local companies invest in a special purpose company to form the business entity—rather than a major developer leading alone—is, as far as can be confirmed, a minority nationwide. Three preconditions enable this scheme.

First, participating entities must have sufficient capital for project implementation. When forming a project centered on local companies, substituting for major company capital is difficult, and the upper limit of project scale becomes constrained. At Yurigahara Park, business design suppresses project scale to the medium-scale park interaction facility "LiLiLi," achievable with local capital.

Second, track record and trust relationships among participants. An SPV requires frequent decision coordination during project implementation, and without prior collaboration track record, decision delays or ambiguous responsibility division arise. The lead placemaking organization plays the role of coordinating local companies.

Third, municipal offering design that encourages community participation. Cases often include conditions in public offering guidelines that make it easier for local operators and organizations to participate, reflecting municipal policy intent.

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Hokkaido is a severe cold region with sub-zero winter temperatures (December-March), experiencing significant seasonal variation with major winter attraction decline in outdoor parks. Different from urban Park-PFI (Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, etc.), business design presuming year-round operation cannot be simply applied.

Yurigahara Park Park-PFI's business design must account for this seasonal variation. During winter attraction decline, a portion of year-round operating costs is covered by spring-fall peak revenue. The indoor park interaction facility "LiLiLi" maintains constant attraction even in winter through indoor-type design, partially mitigating seasonal variation impact.

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Three points to consider by municipalities referencing Yurigahara Park.

First, severe cold region Park-PFI requires business design responding to seasonal variation. Rather than presuming year-round operation, settle with operators through dialogue on business models where peak-season revenue covers year-round operating costs.

Second, a composition centered on local companies and a community organization presupposes suppressing project scale to medium-scale or smaller. In large-scale cases, business viability fails to be reached with local capital alone, making mixed alliances adding major companies realistic.

Third, in a community-led SPV, the coordinating capacity of the lead organization is key. A community placemaking organization serving as lead can bundle the participation of local companies, but ambiguous role division risks stalling decision-making. Incorporate procedures that clarify each participant's role at the offering-design stage.

Basics

Park-PFI Complete Guide

Comprehensive explanation of the system, procedures, and cases

Hisaya-odori Park Independent-Accounting Park-PFI

The business scheme of Japan's largest-class Park-PFI

Tsurumai Park Park-PFI 100+ Years of History

Park-PFI utilization of a historic urban park