Goyang City Holds Final Report Meeting on Basic Plan for Complex Development of KINTEX Underground Space

KINTEX~KINTEX Station~Hallyu World as a Single Route
Significant Economic Ripple Effect

Goyang Special City, Gyeonggi Province (Mayor Lee Dong-hwan) announced on the 21st that it held the final briefing session for the ‘Basic Plan Study on the Complex Development of the Underground Space around Kintex’ on the 19th at the 20th floor of Baekseok Business Building, attended by Mayor Lee Dong-hwan, the Director of the Urban Innovation Bureau, heads of related departments, Kintex officials, and advisory committee members.

Perspective view of the complex underground development area around Kintex. Provided by Goyang Special City

The final briefing session, conducted in the order of progress report by the service provider and Q&A with attendees, presented a basic plan for complex development that connects approximately 1.3 km of underground space from Kintex Station to the Kintex Exhibition Hall and Hallyu World One Mount as a single route, introducing distinctive facilities.

Currently, Kintex is the largest convention center in Korea and is preparing to become a world-class exhibition hall by securing a super-large exhibition space through the construction of the third exhibition hall.

In addition, large-scale development projects underway in the Kintex area, such as the designation of an economic free zone, Goyang Ilsan Techno Valley, and K-Culture Valley, are expected to increase development demand in the Kintex area in the future. If these individual projects are linked through complex development, significant synergy effects and economic ripple effects are anticipated.

This briefing session included a basic plan to organically connect these scattered projects and develop citizen-friendly spaces.

Lee Dong-hwan, Mayor of Goyang Special City, is giving a greeting at the final report meeting for the basic plan service of the complex development of the underground space around KINTEX. Photo by Goyang Special City

The main content announced an underground space circulation plan that allows various facilities, including Kintex Exhibition Halls 1 and 2, the currently planned third exhibition hall, GTX Kintex Station, and Hallyu World One Mount, to be interconnected.

The first and second basement floors are designed as duplex structures, housing facilities that maximize user convenience such as the Kintex Station concourse, commercial facilities, exhibition facilities, conference facilities, and parking lots. The third basement floor is designated as a full parking lot, securing 5,000 parking spaces for the entire development area to facilitate convenient use not only for Kintex visitors and Kintex Station users but also for commercial facility users.

The fourth basement floor is allocated as a data center, the ‘flower of the 4th industry,’ essential for supporting advanced industries such as drones and UAM (Urban Air Mobility), where demand is expected to increase in the future. Inspired by underground data centers like Sweden’s Pionen, the plan addresses concerns about electromagnetic wave exposure and heat island effects compared to aboveground, minimizes power consumption for cooling, and utilizes waste heat as a heat source for district heating.

A Goyang Special City official stated, “Through the basic plan study on the complex development of the underground space around Kintex, we expect synergy effects such as revitalization of the MICE industry, activation of the local economy in Goyang City, and job creation.” He added, “We will carefully review the opinions raised during the final briefing session and finalize the study by establishing an optimized development plan for the Kintex Station area.”