Underground Arcade Plagued by Vacancies
Expected to Build a Virtuous Cycle by Attracting Young People
Jinju City in South Gyeongsang Province is drawing attention as it pursues a wide range of revitalization projects to foster its underground shopping arcade as a new growth engine for the local commercial district.
The city plans to reorganize the underground shopping arcade, where long-term vacancies have accumulated due to changes in the consumption environment and a decline in users, from a simple passageway into a commercial and cultural space where people stay and spend.
First, the city will repurpose vacant units in the underground shopping arcade to inject new vitality into the entire commercial area.
In cooperation with the Startup-Centered University Project Group of Gyeongsang National University, the city will create a “Youth Startup Preparation Space” in the youth mall within the underground shopping arcade and provide aspiring entrepreneurs with affordable spaces to prepare for their initial startup phase. Through this, the city aims to attract more young people and build a virtuous cycle in which new ideas and content spread throughout the commercial district.
At the same time, the city will also create cultural activity spaces for young adults and teenagers.
The “Dance Mirror Room,” which has become a representative cultural space for teenagers, will be expanded from one to two locations, thereby enhancing leisure infrastructure, and starting in February 2026 it will be operated as an open cultural space. This is expected to help the underground shopping arcade establish itself as a living space that teenagers and young adults visit on a daily basis.
The city will also expand cultural and experiential content by utilizing vacant units in the underground shopping arcade.
When vacant units are used as startup spaces for cultural entrepreneurs, the city plans to provide startup incentives to encourage culture-based entrepreneurship. In addition, by introducing a Herb experience zone, craft workshops, and retail shops in connection with the self-support center, the city plans to go beyond simple sales and strengthen lifestyle-oriented content in which citizens can directly participate.
Furthermore, by using idle spaces and vacant units in the underground shopping arcade to permanently exhibit award-winning works from the Korea Lantern Contest, the city will develop the area into a cultural space that citizens naturally visit and spend time in, while also accelerating efforts to attract additional tenants and reduce vacancies.
In parallel, the city will promote measures to improve accessibility in order to enhance user convenience in the underground shopping arcade. Visitors to the underground stores who use the parking lot attached to the Jinju Victory Battle History Park will receive discounted parking fees, thereby reducing their financial burden and making it more convenient to visit the underground shopping arcade.
Together with this spatial reorganization and improved accessibility, the city will also operate programs that utilize existing facilities and platforms. In particular, focusing on the e-sports community in the underground shopping arcade, the city plans to newly organize e-sports tournaments in which all generations can participate, and to foster them as wholesome cultural content by linking them with hands-on programs and education to prevent excessive immersion in games.
Furthermore, to spread the revitalization effect of the underground shopping arcade throughout the old downtown, the city will strengthen linkages with above-ground commercial areas such as the Central Commercial District and the Rodeo Street shopping district.
The city plans to add events and promotions so that consumer traffic naturally circulates between the underground and above-ground areas, create a multi-purpose community room on Rodeo Street, and operate the “All-Night Saturday Night Market” at Nongae Market to enhance synergies between commercial districts. At the same time, the city will encourage stay-type consumption by providing incentive support for small tourist groups visiting the old downtown of Jinju and by operating pop-up stores and cultural events in parallel.
An official from Jinju City said, “Through the underground shopping arcade revitalization project, we will create a commercial environment where young people and citizens come together, and we will strive to inject sustainable vitality into the stagnant old downtown.”
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