Seoul City has begun in earnest the mixed-use development of the long-stalled Goduk rail car depot in Gangdong District. The Goduk depot is a maintenance and storage facility for subway Line No. 5 and Line No. 8 trains. A plan is set to move forward to build high-rise buildings above the facility to create housing, commercial, and cultural spaces.
According to Seoul City on the 20th, the city this month launched a study to establish a commercialization plan for the mixed-use development of the Goduk depot in the area around 698 Goduk-dong, Gangdong District (about 263,000 square meters). The city aims to develop the area, currently used only as a rail car depot, into a hub for regional growth.
The mixed-use development of the Goduk depot underwent a feasibility review once in 2023 by the Seoul Housing and Urban Development Corporation (SH). But the project hit difficulties as the Hanam Line opened, extending Line No. 5, and arguments emerged to transfer the depot to Hanam, Gyeonggi.
A similar model is the "Suseo depot" development project in Jagok-dong, Gangnam District. There, instead of transferring the depot to the outskirts of the city, concrete pillars will be erected between the tracks, a cover will be installed, and buildings up to 16 stories tall, apartments, and parks will be built on top. The city plans to develop the site into a robotics and IT (information technology) industrial complex.
Earlier, the city included in the "2040 Seoul Urban Master Plan," released in 2022, content to pursue three-dimensional mixed-use development of rail depots and garages. It is part of an effort to address the shortage of available land. The city is currently planning development projects for a total of 14 depots: nine urban rail depots—Gunja, Sinjeong, Suseo, Changdong, Banghwa, Goduk, Sinne, Cheonwang, and Gaehwa—and five national rail depots—Imun, Cheongnyangni, Yongsan, Guro, and Susaek. The total site area is about 4.9 square kilometers, 1.7 times the size of Yeouido (2.9 square kilometers).
In June, operations at the Changdong depot in Sanggye-dong, Nowon District, will end, and development of the area is expected to begin in earnest. The depot was transferred to Jinjeop, Namyangju, Gyeonggi. On the former Changdong depot site, the city is pushing the "S-DBC (Seoul Digital Bio City)" construction project to foster a digital bio research and development (R&D) hub integrated with future technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI). Linked with Seoul Bio Hub in Hongneung, Dongdaemun District, and knowledge-based manufacturing facilities in the northeastern Seoul metropolitan area, the plan envisions creating a "mega bio belt." After completing district designation in the second half of this year, the goal is to break ground in 2028.
For the Imun depot in Imun-dong, Dongdaemun District, the city plans to begin this year with feasible unit projects, phased in to revitalize connected surrounding areas. The development of the Sinne depot in Sinne-dong, Jungnang District, was selected in July last year as part of the "Seoul new growth hubs fast-track project" and is under way. For the Sinjeong depot in Sinjeong-dong, Yangcheon District, a transfer-and-development plan is under discussion.
Mixed-use development projects for bus garages are also gaining traction. For the public parking lot site at Suseo Station in Suseo-dong, Gangnam District, a mixed-use development to build a robot tech center and housing is under a feasibility review requested by SH to the Local Public Enterprise Evaluation Institute. For the mixed-use development of sports facilities at the Jeongneung public bus garage in Jeongneung-dong, Seongbuk District, the basic concept plan is being redrawn, and related procedures, including requesting a central investment review, will proceed this month.