Attention is focusing on commercial facilities in specialized streets with distinct concepts. Unlike general commercial areas, specialized streets serve as local landmarks that attract continuous foot traffic, making them advantageous for absorbing floating populations and securing hinterland demand. Additionally, the high foot traffic makes it easier to recruit tenants and enables continuous rental income generation.
Representative specialized streets include the luxury street in Cheongdam-dong, Seoul, Itaewon’s Gyeongridan-gil, Jeongja-dong cafe street in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, and the specialized street in Seomyeon, Busan. These areas have established themselves as landmark commercial districts with their unique characteristics.
These specialized street commercial areas have shown signs of revitalization, with the overall market size growing and average sales increasing compared to last year, even amid the COVID-19 situation. According to the KB Real Estate Commercial Area Analysis Report, the sales scale of the ‘Singil-dong Mural Street’ commercial area (approximately 300m) in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul, was 8.92 billion KRW as of November 2020.
Specialized street commercial areas are also thriving in provincial regions. The ‘Heukdwaeji Street’ commercial area (approximately 300m), one of Jeju’s specialized streets, recorded sales of 22.54 billion KRW as of November 2020. This represents an 11.47% (2.32 billion KRW) increase compared to the 20.22 billion KRW sales in 2019.
An industry insider stated, “Specialized street commercial areas have strong competitiveness due to their professional aspects compared to general commercial areas and their establishment as part of cultural tourism attractions. From a tenant’s perspective, it is beneficial as they can increase sales through floating populations, and from a landlord’s perspective, it is advantageous as it is easier to find tenants due to the revitalization of the commercial area.”
Accordingly, ‘Hillstate Cheonggye Central,’ a complex launched by Hyundai Construction in January in Jung-gu, Seoul, and its commercial facility ‘Hills Avenue Cheonggye Central’ are attracting attention as commercial facilities supplied within a specialized street commercial area.
‘Hills Avenue Cheonggye Central,’ which is being sold simultaneously with ‘Hillstate Cheonggye Central,’ consists of 51 stores from basement level 1 to the 2nd floor, with practical small to medium-sized units ranging from 30 to 84 square meters. It is located at the center of Hwanghak-dong’s kitchen and furniture street, which has been designated as a specialized street.
Since ‘Hills Avenue Cheonggye Central’ is located at the heart of Hwanghak-dong’s kitchen and furniture street, it is planned to be developed as a specialized commercial facility for kitchenware. According to Jung-gu (as of July), there are 365 kitchen and furniture-related stores in the Hwanghak-dong kitchen and furniture street area, and including manufacturing and other stores, there are as many as 540 stores.
According to the KB Real Estate Commercial Area Analysis Report, the sales scale of the Hwanghak-dong kitchen and furniture street commercial area (approximately 300m) was 9.81 billion KRW as of November 2020, with an average sales per store of 25 million KRW.
Furthermore, it is expected to attract floating populations using the existing commercial area as it is located in connection with the Seoul Jungang Market commercial area. It is also anticipated to be advantageous in securing fixed demand from residents within the complex and absorbing hinterland demand from numerous officetels and residential complexes such as Hwanghak-dong Lotte Castle Venezia (1,870 households) and Wangsimni New Town 2nd District Tens Hill (1,148 households) within a 500m radius.
The model house for Hills Avenue Cheonggye Central is scheduled to open in January 2021 in Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul.
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
