Hyunsan 509 votes, Lotte 417 votes
Revival overcoming Gwangju setbacks
HDC Hyundai Development Company (Hyundai Development), which has experienced consecutive collapse accidents at apartment construction sites in Gwangju, won the construction rights by defeating Lotte Construction in the reconstruction bidding competition for Gwanyang Hyundai Apartments in Dongan-gu, Anyang-si, Gyeonggi Province.
According to the construction and maintenance industry on the 5th, Hyundai Development was selected as the construction company by obtaining 509 out of 959 total votes in the temporary general meeting vote for selecting a construction company held by the Gwanyang Hyundai Reconstruction Association that afternoon. Lotte Construction received 417 votes, and there were 33 abstentions.
With an estimated construction cost reaching 420 billion KRW, Hyundai Development has been putting in a lot of effort into this project for a long time. Until the Gwangju collapse accident, it was in a favorable position in the bidding competition, but after the collapse accident, distrust among the association members grew, making it uncertain to secure the contract. After the Gwangju accident, movements to exclude Hyundai Development arose in the complexes where Hyundai Development was scheduled to construct, and in some apartments, a boycott of the 'IPARK' brand even appeared.
Although Hyundai Development was cornered to the edge, CEO Yoo Byung-kyu sent a handwritten apology letter and launched an all-out effort to make a comeback. Immediately after the accident, Hyundai Development hung a banner in the Anyang Hyundai apartment complex stating, "We sincerely apologize. We will run again with the determination to die," showing their will to win the contract once again. On the 15th of last month, CEO Yoo Byung-kyu also sent a handwritten apology letter filled with 879 characters to the Gwanyang Hyundai Reconstruction Association.
At the joint promotional briefing on the 22nd of last month, Scott Sarver, CEO of SMDP, an overseas design firm, personally explained the specialized design to be applied to Gwanyang Hyundai. SMDP is an American architectural design company well known in Korea for handling specialized designs in prime locations of urban maintenance projects.
Although it was expected that Hyundai Development's position in future urban maintenance projects would be greatly weakened, this contract win has provided a foothold for recovery. On the other hand, Lotte Construction, the competitor, suffered a significant loss of face after being defeated by Hyundai Development.
Gwanyang Hyundai is currently composed of 12 buildings with a maximum of 15 floors above ground and 904 households, and through reconstruction, it is planned to be transformed into 15 buildings with 3 basement floors to 32 floors above ground and 1,305 households.
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