Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon visited the Gwangwoon University Station logistics site development in Wolgye-dong, Nowon District, on the afternoon of the 12th and said he would remake Gangbuk into a new economic hub.
Oh said, "The Gwangwoon University Station logistics site development, together with the ongoing 'Seoul Arena' and 'Seoul Digital Bio City (S-DBC),' will become the three major innovation axes in living, industry, and culture that will overhaul Gangbuk." He added, "We will develop Gangbuk into a new growth base and bring forward the heyday of Gangbuk."
The Gwangwoon University Station logistics site had long been one of the long-cherished projects for residents in Gangbuk, including Wolgye-dong, due to various inconveniences such as dust and noise from outdated facilities and the severance of east-west areas by logistics facilities. After the completion of the preliminary negotiations in 2022 and the public notice of the district unit plan decision in 2023, groundbreaking took place in Oct. 2024. Completion is aimed for 2028.
The Gwangwoon University Station logistics site moved toward reality by finalizing and publicly noticing the urban management plan through preliminary negotiations. Preliminary negotiations are a system first introduced by Seoul in 2009 and later codified, in which public and private project operators negotiate to establish a development plan for a large site and contribute part of the project profits to the public. The intent is to block controversies over special favors from zoning upgrades and to retrieve development gains as public contributions, returning the benefits of development to residents.
A plan is underway to transfer the headquarters of HDC Hyundai Development Company, where about 1,800 people work, to the Gwangwoon University Station logistics site. Public contributions totaling 286.4 billion won will be used for road construction linking the east and west areas, infrastructure improvements, living SOC, and the creation of public dormitories. The mixed-use site (multifamily housing) broke ground in Nov. 2024, with structural work on the basement floors underway, and the commercial and office site, which will house the HDC Hyundai Development Company headquarters and others, broke ground in Sept. last year, with earthwork in progress.