Hyatt Centric Sapporo Opens Facing Hokkaido’s Historic Red Brick Building
With 216 rooms and a wood-fired grill, Hyatt Centric Sapporo deserves more than a stopover.
Offering a vantage view of the city, Hyatt Centric Sapporo, which occupies floors 17 to 26 of the new Urbannet Sapporo Link Tower in Chuo Ward, recently open on 3 October.
It is the first Hyatt Centric in Hokkaido. Housing 216 rooms and suites, the property is located directly across the street from the Akarenga-chosha, the red-brick former Hokkaido Government Office Building, with Odori Park a short walk away and JR Sapporo Station about 10 minutes on foot.
Hyatt’s Hokkaido presence has, until now, sat on the slopes at Park Hyatt Niseko Hanazono.
This property, developed by NTT Urban Development on the site of the old Hokkaido Broadcasting headquarters, was first announced in 2022 with a spring 2024 target.
It arrives more than two years later than planned, but just ahead of ski season and the Sapporo Snow Festival in February, the months when the city fills fastest.
The design takes its cue from Takeshiro Matsuura, the 19th-century explorer and cartographer credited with naming Hokkaido.
Odori Park a short walk away and JR Sapporo Station about 10 minutes on foot.
Guests can expect a milieu of reclaimed wood, straw artworks, motifs drawn from everyday regional life, a large wooden check-in counter by a local artisan, and a fireplace lounge to return to after a day in the cold.
Rooms start at 36 sqm, generous by Japanese city-hotel standards, and the nine suites run up to the 116 sq m Centric Suite, which has its own terrace.
Dining is split across two floors. Matsu Grill & Bar, on the 17th floor, cooks Hokkaido seafood and produce over a wood fire with a Mediterranean hand, its open kitchen set against views across the city.
At street level, Mr. Fish serves fish and chips made with white fish from Hokkaido waters, local potatoes, and craft beer, plus fish burgers to take away. The churros are harder to place, but nobody walking in from a February evening will object.
Hyatt files Centric under its Classics portfolio, a step below its luxury labels, so this is a well-located, design-literate base rather than a destination hotel in itself