Seoul city will issue the seventh sales notice in the first half of this year for the landmark site at Sangam DMC (Digital Media City) in Mapo District. Since 2004, the city has planned to develop the site and build the country's tallest landmark tower of more than 100 stories, but the sale failed and the land has remained vacant for a long time. As with the Samseong-dong Global Business Complex (GBC) project, which dropped its supertall plan, the city plans to lower the maximum number of floors and raise the allowable ratio of residential buildings such as apartments and officetels to improve project feasibility for developers and operators.
According to the development industry on the 8th, Seoul city plans to issue a sales notice for the Sangam DMC landmark project in the first half. The project calls for building a supertall tower of more than 100 stories on a 37,262-square-meter (about 11,000 pyeong) site in Sangam-dong DMC. As the city created Digital Media City in Sangam-dong in 2002 to cluster broadcasters and others, it promoted this as a landmark for the northwestern area.
In 2008, Seoul Light Tower, funded by 25 companies including Daewoo E&C, was selected as the preferred bidder and agreed to build a 133-story tower, which would have been the world's second tallest at the time, with an investment of 3.7 trillion won. But due to difficulties in financing caused by the global financial crisis, the contract was terminated in 2012. Afterward, up to 2024, the city issued six sales notices to sell the site, all of which fell through.
A Seoul city official said, "We recognized that the existing sales conditions posed difficulties for developers in terms of development and securing profitability, so we decided to ease the conditions and reissue a sales notice," adding, "Under the existing sales policy, a convention center was mandatory, and the residential ratio for apartments and officetels was capped at 30%. We are moving to ease these aspects." The official added, "The plan to build a supertall building of more than 100 stories is also a burden for developers, so we do not intend to stick to it."
Under the existing district unit plan, the city required 50% of the site to be filled with hotels, convention centers and the like. It also limited dwellings such as apartments and officetels to 30% of total floor area. But the construction industry argued that the residential share was too low, making it hard to recoup investment due to potential unsold units, undermining the project's feasibility.
There were also concerns that building a supertall structure of more than 100 stories would sharply increase construction time and costs. Hyundai Motor Group and the city lowered the planned Samseong-dong GBC, which was to include a 105-story observation deck and exhibition and convention facilities, to a maximum height of 49 stories for the same reason. The city plans to finalize a revised district unit plan reflecting these changes and convene the Joint Urban Architecture Committee in the first half.
Kim Jin-yu, a professor in the department of urban transportation engineering at Kyonggi University, said, "Not only from the perspective of developers (operators) running projects, but looking at the overall structure of Seoul, office demand is in oversupply," adding, "If the Sangam DMC development also lowers the office ratio and raises the residential ratio, it will help address Seoul's shortage of housing supply."
Kim Seung-bae, president of the Korea Developer Association (head of Pidus Development), said, "Globally, two-thirds of space demand is residential, and hotels and offices account for the rest, but because the residential ratio is restricted to about 20%–30%, demand and supply have been mismatched and the development has drifted for a long time," adding, "Even now, the city should exercise wisdom about space demand and make a breakthrough decision to significantly raise the residential ratio."