'Starfield Hanam aims to be pride of Korea'

Shinsegae Group Vice Chairman Chung Yong-jin, third from right, cuts a ribbon with Taubman Centers Chairman Robert Taubman, second from right, and other guests at the opening ceremony of Starfield Hanam, Gyeonggi Province, Friday. / Yonhap

By Yoon Ja-young

Starfield Hanam aims to provide unprecedented shopping experience to customers and it wants to be the pride of the country, according to Shinsegae Group vice chairman.

“Starfield Hanam is special as it is the first of its kind in the country. We will make it the pride of Korea,” said Shinsegae Vice Chairman Chung Yong-jin at the opening ceremony of Starfield Hanam, Friday.

Located southeast of Seoul, the shopping-themed entertainment park boasts the largest shopping complex in the country by floor space. It has a department store, retail outlets, electronics shops and pet shops as well as a luxury zone harboring around 30 luxury brands from overseas. Premium supermarkets and toy shop will also attract customers, along with automobile showrooms of diverse vehicles such as BMW, Genesis, Harley Davidson and Tesla.

Chung took care of the whole project from A to Z, as a new growth engine of the group.

The young leader of the conglomerate leading the country’s retail industry looked excited after cutting the ribbon at the ceremony.

“The excitement we had preparing for this project will lead to customer value. We wanted it to be more than a shopping mall. We made a lot of efforts to provide a new shopping culture, entailing leisure, healing, sports entertainment and gourmet, on top of convenient facilities and services that suit theme parks,” the vice chairman said.

He has said on various occasions that his mother, Shinsegae Group Chairwoman Lee Myung-hee, gave him inspiration for the project. She said that there should be a place where the urban people could get healing from tiring city life at a suburb with sophisticated atmosphere, according to Shinsegae Group.

Starfield Hanam was jointly developed by Shinsegae and Taubman, a U.S.-based shopping mall developer. Shinsegae holds a 51-percent stake while Taubman has the remaining 49 percent.

Robert Taubman, chairman of Taubman Centers, also attended the opening ceremony. He said Shinsegae is the best partner it ever had.

“During the past five years, Shinsegae and Taubman have pondered over how to make an unprecedented shopping facility. We made efforts launching Emart Town and Electromart last year and we would call Starfield Hanam the quintessence of such efforts,” Chung said.

“I am so nervous and afraid because now we are awaiting evaluation about the efforts. Please do not hesitate to scold us and give advice for our shortcomings while complimenting our accomplishments,” Chung said.

He added that the group aims to expand to Seoul and the whole country.

Shinsegae Group aims at 820 billion won in sales in the first year of its beginning. It expects to create 5,000 jobs and see 12 million visitors annually.

According to Shinsegae Group, more than 270,000 people visited Starfield Hanam as of 2 p.m. on the very first day of its opening. It had been drawing a strong spotlight even before opening, attracting more than 240,000 visitors during the pre-open session between Sept. 5 and 8.