Big new mall complex planned for northern Seoul's Eunpyeong District

Computer rendering of the major shopping mall, Jikjurak, which is to be built in Eunpyeong District, Seoul, with a 60-story high skyscrapper. [SEOUL METROPOLITAN GOVERNMENT]

A new development plan laid out by the Seoul city government on Monday includes building a major mall much like southern Seoul's Coex in the north.

The Seoul government plans to develop a 110,000 square-meter (1.2 million square-foot) plot of land to build a shopping mall and a 60-story skyscraper in the “Jikjurak” area of Eunpyeong District, northern Seoul.

It will be located next to Bulgwang Station, subway lines No. 3 and 6.

The entire complex have commercial facilities such as a mall, hotels and office spaces along with residential units, cultural and sports facilities and educational institutions.

The total floor area will be 483,931 square meters, similar to the 460,000 square meters of Coex.

One of the key features will be the 60-story landmark, which is expected to cost 1.5 trillion won ($1.15 billion). Most of the building will be office spaces.

“At this stage, we still haven’t determined the main purpose of the building, but we plan to attract high-tech industries in nearby locations such as the new media industries in Sangam-dong in western Seoul's Mapo District and the pharmaceutical drug and bio industry of the Magok Industrial Complex in Gangseo District” also in western Seoul, said Yang Byeong-hyeon, who's in charge of public development and planning at the Seoul city government.

The commercial mall will be three stories high, and the area for businesses will be much larger than Yeouido, western Seoul’s biggest department store, The Hyundai Seoul.

The mall will have an indoor kids playground, a welfare facility for the elderly and a park for pets.

The University of Seoul will be building a campus there, which will include a graduate school specializing in high-tech industries such as semiconductors.

“At first we considered creating the campus for liberal arts,” said Choi Won-seok, a professor at the university. “But we have decided to create a specialized campus highly connected with companies that will be moving in to the Jikjurak area.”

An 800-unit residential complex will also be built. One quarter will be set aside as "Golden Bridge" units for the elderly.

The Golden Bridge plan was announced by Mayor Oh Se-hoon during his visit to Singapore in July.

It benchmarks Singapore’s Kampung Admiralty, which was built to house elderly residents and provide them with access to social, health and commercial facilities and where the young and old generations could live together.

The biggest concern is the lack of public transportation infrastructure.

In an effort to solve the congested traffic, Seoul city is currently digging an underground traffic tunnel to have a total of eight lanes and planning for a GTX-A metro line to connects the Seoul with Gyeonggi.

The construction is scheduled to start in 2025 and be completed by 2030.

The land was purchased by the Korea National Institute of Health in 2009.

BY MOON HEE-CHUL [lee.hojeong@joongang.co.kr]