Revised Plan: Three 54-Story Buildings
City to Form Negotiation and Coordination Council
Hyundai Motor Group has resubmitted a revised design proposal for the Global Business Complex (GBC) to the Seoul Metropolitan Government after seven months. Hyundai Motor overturned its original plan to construct a single 105-story building and instead revised it to build three 54-story buildings. Given the comprehensive redesign, Hyundai Motor and the city are expected to enter negotiations regarding public contributions and other matters.
On the 21st, Seoul City announced that it had received a development plan change proposal from Hyundai Motor, the project implementer of the GBC. The proposal submitted by Hyundai Motor Group includes constructing three buildings, each 54 stories high (242 meters).
Originally, Hyundai Motor Group planned to build a 105-story (561 meters) skyscraper on the former KEPCO site in Samseong-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, in agreement with the city. The plan included office facilities, a hotel, exhibition and convention centers, and a performance hall, and preliminary negotiations were held with the city. In 2016, Hyundai Motor received incentives such as rezoning the site from a Type 3 general residential area to a general commercial area and relaxing the floor area ratio to 800% as a condition for constructing the building.
However, in February last year, Hyundai Motor Group submitted a change proposal to build two 55-story buildings instead of one 105-story building, which caused friction. Since the city had determined public contributions based on the original 105-story plan, it maintained that the public contribution terms must be reconsidered if the building plan changed. Consequently, Hyundai Motor accepted the city's opinion in July last year and agreed to resubmit the plan.
As Hyundai Motor Group has submitted a revised proposal with different floor counts from the original design, negotiations with the city are expected to continue. In particular, since the number of floors has decreased, the level of public contributions is also expected to change. The public contribution based on the original 105-story plan was approximately 1.7 trillion won. Additionally, the increase in land prices compared to the 2016 preliminary negotiations is expected to be a key point in the negotiations. As land prices have risen, there is a possibility that public contributions will increase accordingly.
Kim Chang-gyu, head of Seoul City's Balanced Development Headquarters, said, "The Hyundai Motor GBC construction has been progressing slowly for a long time since the original plan was decided. We will do our best to proceed with administrative procedures, including preliminary negotiations, as efficiently as possible to strengthen Seoul's urban competitiveness."
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