At the groundbreaking ceremony for the demolition work held on the 28th at Sampyo Remicon Seongsu Plant in Seongdong-gu, Seoul, attendees including Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon, Seongdong-gu Mayor Jung Won-oh, Sampyo Industrial CEO Yoon In-gon, and Hyundai Steel Management Support Headquarters Director Seo Sang-won are taking a commemorative photo. The plant will be completely demolished by the end of June. It marks 44 years since the plant began operations. Although a park was originally planned for the demolition site, Seoul City and Sampyo Industrial decided to find a new site utilization plan after further discussions. Photo by Moon Ho-nam munonam@
[Asia Economy Reporter Minyoung Kim] The ‘Sampyo Remicon Factory in Seongsu-dong’ will be completely demolished by the end of June. It marks 44 years since the factory began operations. The site will be reborn as a representative Seoul landmark visited by tourists from around the world.
According to Seoul City on the 29th, the city held the 'Seongsu-dong Sampyo Remicon Factory Demolition Groundbreaking Ceremony' at the Sampyo Remicon factory site in Seongsu-dong on the 28th. Mayor Oh Se-hoon, Seongdong-gu District Mayor Jung Won-oh, Sampyo Industrial CEO Yoon In-gon, and Hyundai Steel Management Support Headquarters Director Seo Sang-won attended the event.
The city stated that since the agreement was made in 2017 between Seoul City, Seongdong-gu, the operator Sampyo Industrial, and the landowner Hyundai Steel, nearly 100 discussions have taken place over five years, ensuring the demolition deadline promised to citizens is being met.
Seongdong-gu, the authority issuing the construction permit, granted the demolition permit for the Remicon factory on the 7th. Starting with the groundbreaking ceremony on this day, the demolition will proceed sequentially from the second factory to the first factory, with complete demolition planned by June 30.
In 2017, the four institutions including Seoul City signed an agreement to relocate and demolish the Remicon factory by June 2022 and convert the 28,804㎡ demolition site into a park.
Sampyo Industrial proposed voluntarily demolishing the Remicon factory after purchasing the site from Hyundai Steel, with the premise of utilizing the land. After discussions, the four institutions agreed: Hyundai Steel, as the landowner, accepted Sampyo Industrial’s land purchase proposal, and Seoul City and Seongdong-gu agreed to the land use proposal based on the factory demolition.
According to the original plan, when converting the site into a park, the city intended to upgrade the parking lot site within Seoul Forest (19,600㎡), which is city-owned land, to a quasi-residential area for sale, using the proceeds to acquire the demolition site (28,804㎡) to create the park. However, since the increase in park area was not significant and reducing the park near residential areas raised concerns about preferential treatment and lack of urban planning rationality when selling the land for housing to the private sector, a consensus was reached to accept Sampyo Industrial’s proposal.
The city plans to review the demolition site as a strategic site to secure future growth engines for Seoul and support its rebirth as a representative landmark visited by Seoul citizens and tourists worldwide.
Mayor Oh Se-hoon said, "Seoul plans to consider this area as an important strategic site to strengthen the youth advanced innovation axis and secure future growth engines for Seoul, as presented in the ‘2040 Seoul Plan.’ We will transform it into a waterfront hub linked with Seoul Forest and do our best to make it a representative Seoul landmark visited by many citizens and tourists from around the world."
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
