Store Tenant UpdateLease, Hotel, or JWH Village? What the Numbers Taught Me

A Small Update

A few weeks ago, I received a message from the current commercial tenant at Markt 73.

They wished to terminate their lease much earlier than I had expected.

To be honest, my first reaction was simple:

Losing rental income from the commercial space was never part of the original plan.

Instead of panicking, I decided to focus on what I could actually control.

I contacted the tenant to discuss possible options.

I reached out to the real estate agency that had introduced the tenant.

I spoke with several commercial leasing brokers.

I prepared a professional leasing package for the property.

I even rebuilt my financial projections assuming the commercial space would remain vacant for a period of time.

I simply worked through every idea that came to mind.

Fortunately, those conversations led to a much better outcome.

Instead of leaving in September 2026, the tenant is now expected to remain until around January 2027, while also agreeing to leave earlier if a suitable replacement tenant is found.

Nothing has been solved yet.

But I gained something extremely valuable.

Time.

And having time allowed me to ask a completely different question.

One Word Changed Everything

During discussions with one of the commercial brokers, I noticed something interesting.

Among the list of permitted uses for the property was a single word.

Hotel

The broker wasn't recommending that I operate a hotel.

They were simply listing possible uses under the current zoning.

But that single word reopened an idea I had put aside long ago.

An Idea That Never Completely Disappeared

Long before moving to the Netherlands, I had been thinking about operating hospitality properties here.

In Japan, we have been developing properties under the concept of Japan Working Home™ (JWH).

The idea is simple.

A property should not only be a place to live.

It can also generate income while giving owners a meaningful place to stay whenever they visit.

That philosophy naturally led me to consider:

• Airbnb

• B&B

• Boutique hotels

when searching for property in the Netherlands.

However, unfamiliar regulations, permits, fire safety requirements and operational uncertainty eventually pushed those ideas aside.

Seeing the word Hotel reminded me that perhaps those possibilities were never completely gone.

But Does a Hotel Actually Make Sense?

Rather than relying on intuition, I opened Excel.

I built financial models covering:

• ADR

• Occupancy

• Operating expenses

• Cleaning

• Taxes

• Initial investment

• Cash flow

and compared every scenario against one simple benchmark.

Leasing the property for €24,000 per year.

Hotel Operation Simulation

The results surprised me.

A hotel certainly offers attractive upside.

However, achieving that upside requires consistently high occupancy and strong room rates.

Under many realistic assumptions, leasing remained the financially stronger option.

The hotel idea immediately moved lower on my priority list.

Then Another Idea Appeared

If operating a hotel wasn't the best answer...

what about something completely different?

JWH Village.

What is JWH Village?

JWH Village is not simply a café.

Nor is it only a retail shop.

It is a physical home for the JWH philosophy.

A place where people can experience Japan through:

• Onigiri

• Daifuku

• Weekend Japanese curry

• Udon-making experiences

while also discovering investment opportunities, lifestyle ideas, and stories from Japan.

It would function as:

• a community hub,

• a cultural space,

• a showroom,

• and the public face of JWH.

Property Review™ and our consulting services will continue regardless of which option I choose, so they were intentionally excluded from the financial comparison.

The question wasn't how much Village could directly sell.

The question was how much value it could create for everything around it.

Building Another Financial Model

Again, I wanted numbers rather than emotions.

So I built another simulation.

Village Simulation

This model included:

• Onigiri sales

• Daifuku sales

• Coffee

• Weekend curry

• Udon workshops

• Utilities

• Cleaning

• Insurance

• POS software

• Owner salary

• Initial investment

Everything.

Even the pessimistic scenario.

The outcome was far more encouraging than I expected.

Value Beyond Profit

Perhaps the biggest discovery wasn't financial.

Operating JWH Village would naturally create daily opportunities to speak Dutch.

For someone hoping to build a long-term life in the Netherlands, language matters.

It would also become a real-world platform for JWH.

A place where people could meet us, experience our philosophy, and build relationships that simply aren't possible online.

Those benefits are difficult to measure in Excel.

But they may become some of the most valuable returns over time.

The Cost of That Opportunity

There is, of course, another side.

Village would require enormous commitment.

Preparing food.

Serving customers.

Managing inventory.

Running workshops.

Cleaning.

Marketing.

Building a community.

Every day.

Leasing, on the other hand, offers something equally valuable.

Stability.

Predictable income.

Freedom.

Time.

Those things matter too.

Comparing the Three Options

After weeks of modelling, I finally placed everything side by side.

Lease.

Hotel.

JWH Village.

Each option offers something different.

Each asks me to give something up.

Where I Stand Today

Hotel has moved down my list.

JWH Village has become much more attractive than I originally imagined.

Yet I still haven't ruled out leasing.

Because this decision isn't only about profit.

It's about how I want to spend the next five years.

It's about the kind of business I want to build.

It's about the kind of life I want my family to have here in Delft.

This exercise didn't give me an answer.

It gave me clarity.

And sometimes, that is even more valuable.