[Exclusive] Shinsegae Group's Hwaseong theme park likely to wait for another 3 years for groundbreaking

By Park Gyu Jun

Shinsegae Group’s Hwaseong International Theme Park project, which seemed to have gained momentum this year, appears to need another three years to start the construction. The administrative authorities expect the construction to begin around 2025, once the company finishes getting all necessary approvals for the project.

According to industry officials, Wednesday, Gyeonggi Provincial Government plans to receive Shinsegae Group’s masterplan for Hwaseong International Theme Park by December this year.

The 4.57 trillion won ($3.3 million) project aims for Shinsegae Property’s construction of theme park, hotel, shopping mall and golf course on a 3.15 million-square-meter land in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province.

Gyeonggi Province, Hwaseong City and Shinsegae Group had initially pushed forward the project, with the aim of beginning the construction in 2021, partially opening the theme park in 2026 and opening the entire facilities in 2031.

The groundbreaking has been delayed, as it takes a great deal of time to draw up a masterplan for such a mega-size project and it takes at least two years to complete administrative procedures, including getting approvals.

Once the masterplan is completed by the end of this year as planned, approvals will be needed for the site to be designated as a land for tourism complex and the company to build a tourism complex there. Shinsegae Group should submit applications for the approvals to Hwaseong City and get the final approvals from Gyeonggi Province.

Gyeonggi Province and Hwaseong City government officials said it will take two years for the company to get the approvals. In other words, the construction can begin in late 2024 or early 2025 at the earliest, even if the masterplan is completed by the end of this year.

“The construction is expected to begin in 2025 or 2026, [considering administrative procedures],” a Hwaseong City Government official said. The groundbreaking could therefore be delayed for at least three years and up to five years from the initial plan. If the groundbreaking is put off, both the partial and the entire openings will be delayed.

Against this backdrop, Shinsegae Property has faced an outflow of money for land purchase. Shinsegae Property invested 11.7 billion won on Wednesday in the project’s manager, Shinsegae Hwaseong, for the purpose of land purchase. Shinsegae Property has injected a total of 142.7 billion won into Shinsegae Hwaseong.

In March last year, Shinsegae Property agreed to buy the land for 866.9 billion won from Korea Water Resources Corp., promising to pay the money in installments over the next 10 years.

“Because this [project] is a mega-size project taking a considerable amount of time, it is difficult for us at this moment to say when the construction will begin,” a Shinsegae Property official said. “We have been striving to draw up a masterplan [at this moment].”

Hwaseong International Theme Park project was first pursued in November 2007, when Gyeonggi Province and Hwaseong City signed memorandums of understanding with private enterprises. However, it ended in failure twice, because the land transaction fell through. After the project had been at a standstill for more than a decade, Shinsegae Group was selected in February 2019 as the preferred bidder to push ahead with the project once again.

*This was translated from the article originally written in Korean. For more accurate information, please refer to the original version by using the link below. In case of discrepancies between the two versions, the Korean version shall prevail.
https://n.news.naver.com/article/374/0000302547

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