Lotte’s Skyscraper Plan Approved, but Concern Lingers
By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter
The Lotte Group's plan to erect a 112-story building in southern Seoul was given the final go-ahead Tuesday, inviting criticism from all sides.
Lotte's new trophy tower will be 555 meters in height, according to the plan, which took Lotte's aging Chairman Shin Kyuk-ho 15 years to see through.
Some military and aviation officials have raised concerns that the building will be too close to Seoul Airport in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, which currently doubles as a military airbase. Residents living in the path of the air route are also up in arms.
The two sites are located about six kilometers apart, and according to the worst-case scenario, aircraft approaching the airport would be in danger of crashing into the skyscraper.
However, in approving the plan, a joint committee of government officials and civilian experts downplayed the safety concerns, saying that the danger could be easily avoided by adjusting the direction of the airport's eastside runway 3 degrees to the east.
The same committee had rejected Lotte's previous request in July 2007.
``On the condition that Lotte honors its agreement with the Air Force on issues over Seoul Airport's operations and aviation safety, we withdraw our 2007 decision,'' said Cho Won-dong, a senior official of the Office of the Prime Minister.
Lotte and the Air Force have recently reached a tentative agreement over financing the reconstruction of the airport's runway and relocating a squadron of KA-1 light fighters to another airbase in Wonju, Gangwon Province.
Construction is to start in the later half of the year for completion by 2014.
The company will spend over one trillion won (about $716 million) over the five-year construction period, with the ambitious plan of creating ``2.5 million'' jobs per year during this period.
Upon completion, ``Lotte World No. 2'' will hire around 23,000 people and attract about 1.5 million foreign tourists, generating a yearly revenue of about $200 million, according to Lotte officials.
``Seoul needs its own landmark as we can't show Namdaemun and Gyeongbok Palace to tourists all the time,'' said a Lotte spokesman.
Aviation experts such as Hanyang University's Cho Jin-soo argue that adjusting the direction of the airport's runway is hardly a fundamental solution to the problem.
Statistics show that most aviation accidents occur shortly after takeoff and before landing, and planes flying into Seoul Airport from the north are about 280 meters above the ground when they pass the area around Lotte's planned skyscraper.
Although times may differ by aircraft type, it would take only 20 to 40 seconds for a plane to reach the 500-meter plus building after leaving Seoul Airport, Cho said.
And pilots flying into the airport will have a window of just 17 to 34 seconds to react if an aircraft wavers off its flight path and moves toward the building, he added.
``The new Lotte building is located as close to 1.2 kilometers from the flight-path for landings, but to ensure air safety, it must be at least three to four kilometers away,'' Cho said.
``Wake turbulence and clear air turbulence could create problems. And a 555-meter building that close to the flight-path would present a psychological threat for any pilot, and should an aircraft move beyond its flight-path due to mechanical problems or other factors, the results could be disastrous.''