Mitsui Fudosan Co., Japan's biggest developer, will build an office tower in Manhattan with an expected cost of ¥150 billion.

The Hudson Yards project is the company's second development in New York in two years and its largest overseas development ever.

In 2013, it started the redevelopment of a 42-story apartment building with 318 units at 160 Madison Avenue.

Mitsui Fudosan wants to increase revenue and profit outside of Japan and said in 2012 it will invest ¥500 billion in overseas markets.

The new 51-story project will have a total floor area of about 121,000 sq. meters and is part of the largest development in New York City since the construction of the Rockefeller Center in the 1930s. The Mitsui Fudosan project is to be completed by 2018.

Mitsui Fudosan owns 90 percent of the apartment project, with New York-based Related Companies and Toronto-based Oxford Properties Group holding the remaining stakes, Mitsui Fudosan spokeswoman Yayoi Nishida said.

Rival Mitsubishi Estate Co. is developing Flushing Commons, a mixed-use project in Queens.

Chinese developers have also been active in purchasing New York properties, with Anbang Insurance Group Co. agreeing in October to acquire the Waldorf Astoria Hotel for $1.95 billion.

Office prices in Manhattan gained 11 percent in the nine months through September, according to CBRE Group Inc.