Hyundai Motor to start constructing 105-story building early next year

SEOUL, Feb. 17 (Yonhap) -- Hyundai Motor Group, the world's fifth-largest automotive conglomerate, will start building a 105-story structure early next year on the land it bought from Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO) last year, Seoul city officials said Wednesday.

The massive building plan was finally agreed upon between the Seoul metropolitan government and Hyundai Motor after preliminary negotiations for the past six months on the urban development plan.

The two sides had a series of meetings to review Hyundai's construction proposal and to see what impacts the building plan will have on traffic and the nearby environment.

Officials said construction will start early next year after completing all necessary permit and documentation procedures by the city administration.

Hyundai aims to finish construction by 2021.

According to the city administration, the building planned by the group will be 553 meters tall and have a floor area ratio of 799 percent. It will be made up of offices, a convention center, hotel and shopping area.

The conglomerate bought the 79,345-square-meter plot of land in southern Seoul in September of last year.

Hyundai said the convention center alone will cover 15,000 square meters of floor space.

The Seoul metropolitan government has so far called for developing the KEPCO land, along with the adjacent Convention and Exhibition Center (COEX) complex, into a new hub for the country's meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) industry.

City officials also said such a move is expected to create new jobs and open a business area that has not been properly exploited by the country.

Both sides also agreed that the auto group will pay 1.74 trillion won in public contribution to the city government for the business group to change the use of the land site from "residential" to "commercial," a major process needed to get the construction project off the ground.

Builders here are required to contribute a certain amount of funds to a municipal government to carry out construction in return for requesting cooperation and deregulation, a practice partly aimed at sharing development profits with the public.

Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon said the construction project will be a new model for public development participated in by Seoul citizens and experts as well as Hyundai and municipal authorities.

"The Hyundai Motor complex will become a landmark of Seoul and mecca for the MICE industry when its international exchange districts are completed," the mayor said.

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