The Korea Land & Housing Corporation (LH) will restart the project to build a general hospital in Dongtan 2 New Town in Hwaseong. This project aims to construct a large general hospital with over 300 beds to meet the healthcare needs of the residential population exceeding 300,000 in Dongtan 2 New Town, which previously sought private contractors in November last year but failed. LH plans to re-issue the public recruitment in August and September and aims to begin construction within the year.
According to the real estate development industry on the 22nd, LH held a briefing on the 'Public Recruitment Project for the Package Development of the Hwaseong Dongtan 2 General Hospital' at the SETEC in Daechi-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, on the 18th, and is now engaging with private developers. This project involves developing and constructing a general hospital with over 300 beds near Dongtan Station to meet the healthcare needs of the Dongtan 2 New Town.
The plan is to develop a total area of 192,971 square meters, including land for medical facilities (43,659 square meters; 13,206 pyeong), urban support facilities, and mixed-use residential and commercial land as a package. The first announcement made in November last year did not succeed in securing a private contractor, prompting a new announcement to be made.
An LH official noted, "We are aiming to re-announce as early as August or September, with the goal of signing land sale contracts within this year," adding that "we plan to reduce the burden on private contractors interested in pursuing the project by offering more lenient terms than those proposed last year, thereby increasing its viability."
This project consists of the package development of four blocks total, including medical facility land where the hospital will be built, urban support facilities for the hospital, and two blocks of mixed-use land. The medical facility land and urban support facilities are designated as quasi-residential areas, while the mixed-use land is classified under general commercial zones. The scheduled land supply price is expected to exceed 888.4 billion won, and the land will be usable starting from December. LH is considering methods such as partitioning the land price for the project executor.
The reason LH seeks to build a large general hospital in Dongtan is that it expects the healthcare demand will increase as Hwaseong Dongtan 2 New Town becomes a residential area with over 300,000 residents. According to LH's development plan for the Hwaseong Dongtan 2 site, the New Town aims to create a self-sufficient city comprising 120,594 housing units (with a population capacity of 301,656) across 24,028,000 square meters (approximately 7.27 million pyeong) in the areas of Geumgok-ri, Mok-ri, BangGyo-ri, and Sancheok-ri in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province. The project's timeline extends until next year.
The executor must present detailed plans on which construction company will build the hospital and which hospitals will be attracted, requiring individual negotiations with LH. It is known that several large hospitals, including Korea University Medical Center and Soonchunhyang University Central Hospital, are showing interest.
However, negotiations on detailed conditions with the hospitals are expected to be a variable. If hospitals propose conditions such as demanding construction costs to be borne free of charge, it could significantly deteriorate the feasibility of the projects for developers and builders, potentially failing to attract private contractors. An industry insider remarked, "When negotiating to attract hospitals, many hospitals typically desire that the executor covers all construction expenses, which often leads to decreased project viability."