The Seoul Metropolitan Government has begun an administrative notice for the implementation agreement of the Jamsil sports and exhibition-convention (MICE) complex development project (Jamsil MICE). The administrative notice is the final step toward the implementation agreement. Five years after selecting the Hanwha consortium as the preferred bidder for the project in 2021, the city will sign the implementation agreement. The Jamsil MICE project is a plan to develop a baseball stadium, swimming pool, sports complex, and exhibition-convention facilities in the Jamsil area. Mayor Oh pushed to increase the existing project cost by nearly 300 billion won and convert Jamsil Baseball Stadium into a domed stadium.
According to the maintenance industry on the 29th, the Seoul Metropolitan Government announced on the 22nd an administrative notice to sign the Jamsil MICE implementation agreement. The city said, "We will create the Jamsil Sports Complex area as a sports-MICE complex space to maximize Seoul's global competitiveness," adding, "We intend to sign an implementation agreement with the project operator after going through relevant procedures under the Act on Private Participation in Infrastructure." The administrative notice runs through May 12.
The target site is 357,576 square meters around Jamsil Sports Complex, 25 Olympic-ro, Songpa-gu. On a total floor area of 989,517.59 square meters, the project will build an exhibition-convention center (108,000 square meters of dedicated space), a baseball stadium (30,000 seats), a sports complex (11,000 seats), a swimming pool (certified grade 2, 3,000 seats), and ancillary facilities including lodging, office, commercial, and parking facilities.
The project will use a build-transfer-operate (BTO) private investment model, with a total cost expected to be around 2.7 trillion won. Under BTO, the private sector builds infrastructure, transfers ownership to the central or local government upon completion, and then holds operating rights for a set period to recoup investment through fees and other revenues. The project period totals 46 years, including six years of construction and 40 years of operation after opening. The implementation agreement will set out matters related to total project cost, funding and deployment, and design and construction.
After the administrative notice ends, the implementation agreement will be finalized by the Private Investment Project Review Committee (Mintu-sim) of the Ministry of Planning and Budget, following the city's internal fiscal plan review. Under the Act on Private Participation in Infrastructure, projects with total costs of 200 billion won or more must undergo Mintu-sim review. A Seoul city official said, "The Mintu-sim review schedule has not yet been set," adding, "We are pushing to sign the implementation agreement as soon as possible and break ground in the second half."
The project was first proposed in 2016, and in 2021 a Hanwha Group (39% equity) and HDC Holdings Co. (20%)–led Hanwha consortium, joined by Hana Financial Group and others, was selected as the preferred bidder. The initial total project cost was 2.1672 trillion won, but the Hanwha consortium and the city continued to discuss an increase of about 15%. The total cost was ultimately set at 2.7 trillion won.
As the plan changed Jamsil Baseball Stadium into a domed stadium and increased seating from the current 25,000 to 30,000, the Hanwha consortium requested a budget increase. The expansion and remodeling of the stadium is known to have been strongly pushed by Mayor Oh.
Mayor Oh won the Seoul mayoralty in the 2021 by-election and secured a fourth term in the following year's local elections. He then pushed a plan to convert Jamsil Baseball Stadium into a domed stadium, reflecting requests from the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) and the baseball community. In 2023, Mayor Oh visited "Rogers Centre" in Toronto, Ontario, and exchanged views with local officials about domed stadiums. Rogers Centre opened in 1989 as the world's first fully automatic retractable-roof domed stadium.
Lee Jong-sung, a professor in the Department of Sports Industry Science at Hanyang University, said, "As global warming continues, the need for domed stadiums is growing. It is even more necessary to host international events such as the WBC." Lee said, "In particular, Jamsil Baseball Stadium has grown with the history of Korean baseball and is a flagship venue in the country, so many baseball fans and people in the sport want a retractable-roof domed stadium to be built."
Kim Seung-bae, CEO of Pidus Development, said, "The Jamsil MICE development, in tandem with the Yeongdong-daero underground complex development project that connects from Samseong Station to the COEX intersection, will further enhance the value of Seoul as a central business district," adding, "In particular, Jamsil has many apartment complexes and is expected to serve as the residential hinterland for an extra-large business district."