Lee Byung-hoon, "I Will Build a Parking and High-Tech Cultural Complex Tower in the Original Downtown"

Lee Byung-hoon, the Democratic Party preliminary candidate for Gwangju Dong-gu Nam-gu-eul in the general election, announced on the 4th that he will promote the construction of a 'Parking and Advanced Culture Complex Tower' in the area around the current Geumnam Park, which includes a large-scale parking facility and offers experiences such as virtual and augmented reality and e-sports, to restore the urban functions of Gwangju's original city and revitalize commercial districts.

Candidate Lee emphasized that this is an offensive measure to compete and win through special content and marketing, rather than a defensive response to protect existing commercial districts amid the reality of declining sales and commercial district concentration caused by large-scale complex shopping malls.

The Parking and Advanced Culture Complex Tower targets the area around the current Geumnam Park, which spans Geumnam-ro and Chungjang-ro. Geumnam Park was originally established by Gwangju City as an urban resting place, but it has now degenerated into a residence for homeless people, resulting in extremely low usage by citizens.

Candidate Lee plans to install a game room using virtual and augmented reality for youth on the first floor, an e-sports arena on the second floor, parking lots from the third to seventh floors, and a rooftop park and observatory on the rooftop.

To this end, Candidate Lee has held continuous meetings and consultations with Chungjang-ro residents but faced many difficulties in finding a site. Through residents' suggestions, they agreed that the area around the current Geumnam Park, owned by Gwangju Metropolitan City, is the optimal location. After discussing specific construction plans, it was confirmed that if the project is promoted through a consignment development method by requesting KAMCO (Korea Asset Management Corporation) for public assets, it can be established with very little financial burden. It is also known that KAMCO has already given a positive response.

In fact, since 2004, KAMCO has been engaged in entrusted development projects for national and public assets to contribute to the expansion of living SOC and provide vitality to the local economy through development work on local government-owned shared properties. The 'Narakium Jeodong Building,' rebuilt from the Seoul National Tax Service building, has been completed, and in the regions, the Changwon City Complex Public Parking Tower entrusted development project was completed in 2023, and the Asan City Complex Public Parking Tower is currently underway. KAMCO has completed a total of 49 national and public development projects worth about 1.7 trillion won in cooperation with the government and local governments, and ongoing projects are worth about 1.4 trillion won.

Regarding this, Jeong Il-seong, president of the Chungjang-ro 1, 2, and 3-ga Merchants Association, said, "The Parking and Advanced Culture Complex Tower is the last alternative that can revive Chungjang-ro and Geumnam-ro and can become a landmark of our Gwangju," and demanded, "With the vacancy rate of stores exceeding 30% due to large-scale complex shopping malls, please ensure the construction of the Parking and Advanced Culture Complex Tower to restore the commercial district."

Candidate Lee stated, "The residents' urgency will be the greatest driving force to overcome this difficult situation," and added, "We must revive Geumnam-ro and Chungjang-ro, which have suffered severe hardships due to the democratization movement. This is a goal that our Gwangju politics must achieve."

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