Changwon City Cancels Designation of Priority Negotiation Candidate for 5th Public Offering of Masan Marine New City

Changwon Special City in Gyeongnam has decided to cancel the qualification of the HD Hyundai Development Consortium as the preferred negotiator for the Masan Marine New City private complex development project.

Changwon City announced on the 19th that it has notified the HD Hyundai Consortium of the cancellation of its designation as the preferred negotiator.

According to the city, the Hyundai Consortium was designated as the preferred negotiator in the 5th public contest for the Masan Marine New City private complex development project held on May 31, 2021.

Masan Marine New City, Changwon-si, Gyeongnam.
[Photo by Changwon Special City Hall]

Subsequently, the city conducted negotiations with Hyundai Development to reflect the project plan for 297,000㎡, which is 32% of the total 642,000㎡ site of Masan Marine New City.

Negotiations took place 13 times from November 4, 2021, to November 13 last year, but ended without reaching an agreement on key issues.

Both parties agreed on public contributions, regional win-win measures, and the creation of a landmark building through an international competition, but reportedly remained at an impasse over the change of use for residential lodging facilities.

The Hyundai side reportedly continuously requested that the implementation agreement explicitly allow changing the 1,280 residential lodging units in the project plan to officetels, fearing that sales of residential lodging facilities would become difficult due to amendments to the Building Act and related laws.

The city understood that the relevant laws had already been amended or were under legislative notice when the project plan was submitted, and that specifying the change of use for the residential lodging facilities, a major facility in the project plan, in the agreement would constitute preferential treatment, so it consistently refused to accept the request.

After concluding negotiations with Hyundai, the city gave prior notice of the cancellation of the preferred negotiator designation on November 20 last year and notified the cancellation after two hearings.

During the hearing process, Hyundai expressed an opinion to withdraw its claim to specify the change of use for residential lodging facilities in the agreement, but the city did not accept this, citing that Hyundai withdrew the demand only after the negotiation termination notice despite consistently insisting on it during negotiations, and that it reversed agreed matters several times during negotiations.

Kim Jong-pil, Director of the Maritime Port and Fisheries Bureau, said, “With the change in the development and implementation plans for the Masan Marine New City urban development project, the construction of upper infrastructure has begun in earnest, and public areas such as the urban high-tech industrial complex and gardens are progressing normally. We will carefully review future plans for the private area following this cancellation.”

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