The Seoul Metropolitan Government has begun an administrative notice for the execution agreement on the Jamsil sports and exhibition-convention (MICE) complex development project (Jamsil MICE). The administrative notice is the final step toward the execution agreement. After selecting the Hanwha consortium as the preferred negotiating partner for the project in 2021, the city will sign the execution agreement five years later. 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 convert Jamsil Baseball Stadium into a domed stadium by increasing the existing project cost by nearly 300 billion won.
According to the maintenance industry on the 29th, the Seoul Metropolitan Government on the 22nd announced an administrative notice for signing the Jamsil MICE execution 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 execution agreement with the project operator after going through the relevant procedures under the Act on Private Participation in Infrastructure, among others." The administrative notice runs through May 12.
The site is 357,576 square meters around Jamsil Sports Complex, 25 Olympic-ro, Songpa District. On a total floor area of 989,517.59 square meters, the project will build exhibition-convention facilities (108,000 square meters of dedicated space), a baseball stadium (30,000 seats), a sports complex (11,000 seats), a swimming pool (level-2 certified, 3,000 seats), and ancillary facilities including lodging, office, commercial, and parking facilities.
The project will use a private investment method (BTO·Build-Transfer-Operate), and the total project cost is expected to be around 2.7 trillion won. BTO means that the private sector builds infrastructure, transfers ownership to the government or local government upon completion, and then recoups its investment through user fees by operating the facility for a set period. The project period is a total of 46 years, including six years of construction and 40 years of operation after the start of operations. The execution agreement will specify the total project cost, financing and deployment of funds, and matters related to design and construction.
After the administrative notice ends, the execution agreement will be finalized by the Private Investment Project Deliberation Committee (Mintusim) 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 a total cost of 200 billion won or more must undergo Mintusim deliberation. A Seoul city official said, "The Mintusim deliberation schedule has not been set yet," adding, "We are working to sign the execution 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, which also included Hana Financial Group, was selected as the preferred negotiating partner. When the project was first proposed, the total cost was 2.1672 trillion won, but discussions continued between the Hanwha consortium and the Seoul Metropolitan Government over an approximately 15% increase in project cost. The total project cost was ultimately set at 2.7 trillion won.
As plans were made to convert Jamsil Baseball Stadium into a domed stadium and increase seating from the current 25,000 to 30,000, the Hanwha consortium sought an increase in project costs. The expansion and renovation of the stadium is known to have been strongly pushed by Mayor Oh.
Mayor Oh became mayor of Seoul in a 2021 by-election and won a fourth term in the following local elections. He then pushed a plan to convert Jamsil Baseball Stadium into a domed stadium, reflecting requests from the baseball community, including the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO). In 2023, Mayor Oh visited the "Toronto Rogers Centre (Rogers Centre)" in Ontario, Canada, to exchange views on domed stadiums with local officials. The Toronto Rogers Centre opened in 1989 as the world's first fully automatic retractable-roof domed stadium.
Lee Jong-seong, a professor in the Department of Sport 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 tournaments such as the WBC." Lee said, "In particular, Jamsil Baseball Stadium has shared the history of Korean baseball and is a representative venue in the country, so many baseball fans and people in baseball hope to build a retractable-roof domed stadium."
Kim Seung-bae, CEO of Pides Development, said, "The Jamsil MICE development, in tandem with the Yeongdong-daero underground space complex development project stretching from Samseong Station to the COEX intersection, will further enhance the value of Seoul as a central business district," adding, "In particular, because Jamsil has many apartment complexes, we expect it to serve as a residential base area behind the mega-scale business district."