Seoul Subway Vacant Shops Reborn as Citizen Service Spaces

Active Promotion of Vacant Subway Shops to Public Institutions for Use as Citizen Spaces
Supporting Employment and Startups for Socially Vulnerable, Utilizing Spaces for Culture, Arts, Policy, and Local Specialty Promotion
President Baekho: "We Will Continue to Expand Efforts to Return Vacant Shops as Citizen Spaces and Fulfill Our Duties as a Public Enterprise"

Seoul Metro (President Baek Ho) announced on the 23rd that it is currently negotiating with a total of 99 public institutions, including the Seoul Metropolitan Government, 25 district offices, Dangjin City, Yeongdong County, and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, to create ‘social contribution-type commercial spaces’ in vacant subway station shops.

‘Social contribution-type commercial spaces’ are public-interest shops linked to public service policies for citizens.

In the past, the corporation implemented a policy to convert most of the idle spaces within subway stations into commercial spaces to improve deficits and maximize profits. However, some shops remained vacant for long periods, becoming elements that detracted from the station environment or obstacles to customer flow, thus failing to fulfill their intended roles.

To address this, the corporation has established a plan to convert some shops into ‘social contribution-type commercial spaces’ for public interest purposes.

The corporation is boldly demolishing shops that cause problems due to congestion and promoting the entry of ‘social contribution-type commercial spaces’ into long-term vacant shops.

Through the expansion of ‘social contribution-type commercial spaces,’ public institutions can use station shops, which are easily accessible to the general public, as venues for policy promotion at reasonable rental rates, while the corporation solves the problem of long-term vacancies. Above all, from the citizens’ perspective, it is expected that satisfaction with subway use will increase as they can access various public services at frequently used stations.

Currently, the corporation has signed lease contracts with the Seoul Metropolitan Government, district offices, Gangwon Province, and others for 20 locations in 19 stations, providing public services such as employment and startup support for socially vulnerable groups, sales of local specialties and products made by seniors and persons with disabilities, and support for culture and arts.

Since December last year, the corporation has introduced ‘social contribution-type commercial spaces’ to a total of 99 institutions and is conducting customized promotions linked to each institution’s core and priority projects.

Through this, in December last year, a ‘Nowon-gu Youth Pop-up Store’ was established at Hagye Station to contribute to youth entrepreneurship support. Recently, to improve the poor working conditions of mobile workers such as delivery riders, substitute drivers, and private tutors, which are rapidly increasing, ‘mobile worker rest areas’ are scheduled to be installed and completed within the first half of the year at Sadang Station (2 locations) and Jongno 3-ga Station (1 location), with plans to continuously expand in cooperation with the Seoul Metropolitan Government.

Additionally, the corporation is actively consulting with related institutions on various public interest projects such as the opening of the ‘Gwanghwamun Book Square Exhibition Room’ for Seoul library policy promotion, support for independent youth entrepreneurship, senior job support, and assistance in developing sales channels for local specialties.

President Baek said, “Our corporation aims to fulfill its duties as a public enterprise by restoring vacant commercial spaces to citizen spaces through cooperation with institutions providing various public services. We will strive to continuously expand ‘social contribution-type commercial spaces’ through active promotion and consultation in the future.”