Gwangju Eodeungsan Tourist Complex Development Project 'Accelerates'

City-Shinsegae Property Enter 60-Day Negotiation Period... Targeting Construction Start by End of 2025

'Forest, Light, Stars, and Life Harmonized: Korea's Representative Landmark' Development Concept

Six Spaces within Amusement Park Site...

The development project of the Gwangju Eodeungsan Tourist Complex, which had been stagnant for the past 18 years, is gaining momentum.

Gwangju Metropolitan City (Mayor Kang Gi-jung) and Gwangju Urban Corporation announced on the 31st that they have disclosed part of the business plan from Shinsegae Property Co., Ltd., the preferred negotiation partner for the development of the Eodeungsan Tourist Complex amusement park site, and have begun negotiations for 60 days.

A bird's-eye view of Eodeungsan Tourist Complex. [Photo by Gwangju Metropolitan City]

Shinsegae Property supplemented the initially proposed business plan according to the third-party public offering guidelines, submitting a more creative and detailed plan. As a result of the evaluation, they scored over 850 points and were selected as the preferred negotiation partner on the 26th.

This is interpreted as showing Shinsegae’s strong commitment to actively implementing the Eodeungsan Tourist Complex development project.

The development concept submitted by Shinsegae Property for the Eodeungsan Tourist Complex is “Creating Korea’s representative landmark tourist complex where forest, light, stars, and life harmonize.” They set four themes: “Forest & Healing,” “Light & Leisure,” “Stars & Experience,” and “Life & Stay,” and plan to complete a stay-type complex tourist area through six spatial compositions within the amusement park site.

First, the commercial facility district, where a complex shopping mall will be built, was limited to 116,000㎡ or less according to the public offering guidelines. Therefore, Shinsegae Property submitted 115,800㎡, which is a 20% reduction compared to the initially proposed 143,951㎡.

The accommodation facility district plans to include 270 condominium rooms as mandatory and 780 residence units.

The recreation, entertainment, and public convenience facilities were proposed at 180,191㎡, a 20% increase compared to the initially proposed 151,695㎡, meeting the public offering guideline condition of at least 180,000㎡.

Shinsegae Property particularly estimated the total project cost, which serves as the basis for the project performance guarantee deposit, at 1.2493 trillion KRW.

Accordingly, 63.5 billion KRW, which is 10% of the total project cost excluding land and commercial facilities, is planned as the performance guarantee deposit. The land compensation cost was estimated at 86 billion KRW, exceeding the 85.6 billion KRW suggested by the appraisal.

From a win-win perspective, they plan to build and donate the “Byeolgum Library” within the amusement park site. They also proposed developing tourist courses linked with local commercial districts and tourism infrastructure, supporting small business sales channels to revitalize local commerce, and improving the local commercial environment.

A representative of Shinsegae Property stated, “We will actively implement sustainable win-win measures and faithfully fulfill our role as a partner for the region’s co-growth.”

Gwangju City and Gwangju Urban Corporation will form a working-level negotiation team to specify project implementation plans based on the public offering guidelines and resolve issues through a thorough analysis of the business plan.

They plan to complete preliminary procedures such as signing the business agreement and selecting a private developer within this year, aiming to start construction by the end of 2025.

Meanwhile, the Eodeungsan Tourist Complex development project was initiated last September with Mayor Kang Gi-jung’s public announcement to the citizens regarding the direction for a complex shopping mall. Subsequently, Shinsegae Property proposed the amusement park development, which was concretized through a third-party public offering method.

Mayor Kang Gi-jung of Gwangju said, “We will proceed with negotiations under the three principles of citizen convenience, investor profitability, and administrative promptness to ensure the long-standing Eodeungsan Tourist Complex development project, which has been an unresolved issue for 18 years, can proceed smoothly and complete preliminary procedures within this year.” He added, “We will transform the desolated Eodeungsan into Korea’s best tourist complex where tourism, recreation, culture, leisure, and shopping are possible, creating a new vitality premium complex that embodies the hopes of 1.43 million Gwangju citizens.”