NEW YORK CITY—Mitsui Fudosan America, the US arm of Japan's largest real estate company, said Tuesday it had hired John Westerfield as CEO effective Aril 1, and promoted Kaoru Yamaoka to the presidency of MFA. The two men succeed Yukio Yoshida, who served as MFA's president and CEO for four years before returning to Mitsui Fudosan corporate headquarters in Tokyo as general manager of the company's office development platform, a spokesman tells GlobeSt.com.

Formerly a managing director with Morgan Stanley, Westerfield joins MFA at a time when the parent company is stepping up its US presence as part of its global “Innovation 2017” plan. GlobeSt.com reported in January that MFA had partnered with Related Oxford to develop the 1.3-million-square-foot 55 Hudson Yards office tower at the massive Hudson Yards mixed-use development on Manhattan's Far West side.

More recently, MFA expanded its US multifamily development to the West Coast by taking shares of rental projects under way in San Francisco and Seattle, totaling 450 units. The company has committed $2 billion over the past three years to office and residential projects on both coasts.