Korean Air Restructuring, Seoul City Variable Emerges

Songhyeon-dong Land, Sale Disrupted if Changed to 'Cultural Park'

Seoul City is promoting a plan to change the Korean Air site, currently an empty lot in Songhyeon-dong, Jongno-gu, into a 'cultural park' under urban planning facilities. On the 28th, the city announced that it submitted the 'Songhyeon-dong Korean Air Site Park Decision Plan' for consultation at the Urban and Architecture Joint Committee held on the 27th. The decision plan includes changing the site, currently designated as a special planning zone within the Bukchon district unit plan, into a cultural park. The photo shows the Korean Air site in Songhyeon-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul, which Korean Air is currently promoting for asset sale. Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

[Asia Economy Reporter Yuri Kim] The Seoul Metropolitan Government is officially pushing to change the land use of the Korean Air-owned site in Songhyeon-dong, Jongno-gu, to a park within this year. Once the land use is changed to a park, development will become impossible. This raises concerns about setbacks to Korean Air's plan to sell the land as a self-help measure.

On the 28th, Seoul City announced that at the 7th Urban and Architectural Joint Committee held on the 27th, it submitted a consultation on the 'Songhyeon-dong Korean Air Site Park Decision Plan.' The plan includes changing the site, currently designated as a 'special planning zone within the Bukchon district unit plan,' to a 'cultural park' under urban planning facilities. The committee expressed its position, stating, "We strongly support the prompt decision and acquisition of the park for public use," the city added.

In effect, Seoul City is using the committee's 'consultation' as a pretext to push forward the park designation of the privately owned Songhyeon-dong site. A Seoul city official said, "We plan to proceed with related procedures such as public inspection notices next month and decide on the site as a cultural park within this year."

The Songhyeon-dong site, measuring 36,642 square meters, is currently designated as a Type 1 General Residential Area with many restrictions such as a building coverage ratio of 60% and a floor area ratio of 200%, allowing only detached or multi-family housing up to four stories and neighborhood living facilities. However, if the land use is changed to a cultural park, construction activities will become completely impossible.

The city has also announced a policy shift from the central government's previous stance of urging the purchase of the site to directly acquiring it with city finances. The city stated, "We plan to proceed with negotiated compensation through appraisal, but if negotiations fail, we will proceed with (compulsory) expropriation procedures," adding, "We will notify the landowner (Korean Air) of this content in advance as we enter the urban planning change process next month."

Korean Air purchased this 36,642 square meter land from Samsung Life Insurance in 2008 for 290 billion won and had been promoting the development of a complex cultural district including a Hanok hotel. However, the plan was scrapped due to legal regulations prohibiting hotel construction near schools.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.