Hyundai Motor to build skyscraper at KEPCO site
Korea Electric Power Corp.’s main office property in Samseong-dong, southern Seoul / Yonhap
By Park Jin-hai
Hyundai Motor plans to build an over 100-story building at the site that is purchased from Korea Electric Power Corp. in southern Seoul.
The company said Tuesday that Hyundai E&C, its construction affiliate, held a presentation to brief the construction project ahead of overseas architecture firms on Dec. 18.
A total of 14 firms including Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP, a Chicago-based architectural company that designed Tower Palace in Seoul, and Kohn Pedersen Fox, a U.S. firm that designed Lotte World Tower in Seoul.
The world’s fifth largest automaker already had already expressed strong will to turn the KEPCO site into Seoul’s representative landmark.
Upon the purchase of the 10.5 trillion won land in November, Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Mong-koo calls it the “investment envisioning next one hundred years.”
Hyundai’s new headquarters, namely “Global Business Center (GBC),” will incorporate its auto affiliates as well as a hotel, a convention center and an auto theme park, emulating Volkswagen's Autostadt, the German auto conglomerate's global headquarters and auto theme park.
The company will receive blueprints from overseas architecture companies until next month.
It also plans to submit the GBC development draft to Seoul Metropolitan Government by January next year for approval. Once its land usage is approved, reviews on construction and environmental and traffic tests follow, taking four to five years until the final approval.
The KEPCO’s land ownership will be finally transferred to Hyundai in September next year, but to break the ground earlier, with the approval of KEPCO, it has been carrying out soil survey of the site.
Hyundai says that it has no significant challenges to receive the land usage permit from the city government, since its development plan coincides with Seoul city’s development plan.
The city government has a master plan to build international business, sports, tourism and cultural complex on the 720,000 square-meter land encompassing COEX, KEPCO and Jamsil Sports Complex.
The city already gave a word that its Hyundai’s development plan comes in line with the city’s development plan, it will change the current land usage marked residential into commercial, al raising the rate of building volume to lot upto 800 percent.
Yet, it still is unclear whether city will give a green light to Hyundai’s idea to build an over 100-story skyscraper.
“Although that land doesn’t limit the height of the building, the construction of over 100-story high-rise should have other things to consider,” said a Seoul city official.
Hyundai Motor previously tried to build a 110-story headquarter in Ttukseom, but had to turn it down because of the city’s limitation on building heights.