In Utah County, Utah, a development experiment is under way around a commuter rail station that departs from the conventional American suburb. Instead of spreading single-family homes and low-rise multi-unit housing across wide tracts of land, the plan concentrates high-rise housing along with office and retail space near the station in a high-density mixed-use project. The approach resembles the transit-oriented complex developments Seoul has been pursuing. The city of Vineyard has gone a step further, adopting a zoning plan that sets no cap on building height or development density in areas next to the rail station. It is this environment that has drawn a local developer's attention to the high-rise construction technology and new-town development experience of Korean builders.
According to construction and housing industry sources on the 15th, Flagship Companies, the real estate developer behind the planned Utah City new town in Vineyard, Utah, has approached large Korean builders to take part in the project and has also proposed investment. For the $2.5 billion project, the developer has offered opportunities not only in engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) but also in securing leasing and operating income through capital investment. An official at one builder that received the proposal said the developer "rated Korea's high-rise construction technology and urban planning capabilities highly," adding that the company is "reviewing a range of possibilities beyond construction work, including transferring know-how."
As U.S. developers take note of Korean builders' experience in high-density urban development, more Korean companies are weighing opportunities beyond construction work, in forms such as mixed-use development, investment and construction management (CM). The strength overseas developers cite is the ability to develop and build large high-rise residential complexes efficiently. At the same time, they view the "K-apartment" — landscaping, community facilities and smart systems included — as a finished product. Korea has deep experience concentrating high-rise housing with retail and office space around rail stations. In building residential complexes that sometimes exceed 10,000 units, Korean firms have accumulated the capacity to plan housing, daily-life amenities and public spaces as an integrated whole and to manage large-scale construction. The U.S. has companies with skyscraper expertise as well, but Korean builders have sharpened their scheduling, cost and quality control by delivering large high-rise housing complexes over and over.
In the U.S., too, demand is growing for mixed-use projects that concentrate housing, offices and retail around rail stations, moving away from the traditional suburban model of single-family homes on large lots. An official familiar with overseas housing markets said that "as construction costs rise in the U.S. as well, there is growing demand to build condominiums and rental housing densely above a certain height," and that "a trend is emerging toward raising development density around rail stations, as in Korea or Japan, rather than staying with a car-centered environment."
The difficulty is that even with such technology, Korean builders have found it hard to break into the U.S. housing development market. Their overseas orders have long been concentrated in plants and other industrial facilities, leaving housing a relatively minor presence. Of the $47.27 billion in total overseas construction orders last year, industrial facilities accounted for 79.2%, while buildings including housing made up about 4%, according to the Overseas Construction Integrated Information Service. In the U.S. market in particular, construction laws and licensing systems differ by state, requiring separate licenses, workers and partner firms in each. Even when a partnership comes together, projects can be delayed or fall apart during land-use changes, zoning approvals and negotiations with local communities. An industry official said that "some states require performance bonds set at a scale comparable to the project cost," adding that "the financing capacity and execution ability of the local project partner are also major variables, which makes things difficult."
Daewoo Engineering & Construction signed a memorandum of understanding with a local developer in Prosper, Texas, in September last year to pursue a mixed-use project of townhouses, a hotel and offices, but recently halted the project because of the local developer's funding problems. In Palisades Park, New Jersey, a local partner is currently working through permits for a project to develop an 18-story, 540-unit residential building at a total cost of about $291 million.
Against this backdrop, Utah is drawing attention as a new testing ground for Korean builders entering the U.S. housing development market. Under development guidelines Vineyard released in 2022, areas adjacent to the FrontRunner commuter rail station are subject to zoning with no cap on development density. South of the station, height limits have been removed as well. That amounts to development conditions in which Korean builders, with their extensive experience in high-rise housing and mixed-use projects, can put their technology to work.
Utah's rapid growth and the 2034 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics are also supporting development demand. The state's population reached 3,551,150 last year, up 44,351, or 1.3%, from a year earlier. In Utah County, where Utah City will be built, the population rose by 15,914, or 2.1%, over the same period, accounting for about 36% of the state's total increase. Utah's median age is in the early 30s, among the youngest of any U.S. state.
Analysts expect Korean builders to diversify how they enter the U.S. housing market. Beyond joining individual projects alongside local developers, acquiring a local homebuilder or development company to secure a business platform is cited as another option. Japan's Sekisui House expanded its scale by acquiring U.S. homebuilder M.D.C. Holdings for about $4.9 billion in 2024. Daiwa House has likewise been widening its footprint through a series of acquisitions of U.S. homebuilders.
One model gaining attention is joining projects from the earliest stage and sharing in the returns, drawing on experience in designing and building high-rise housing. Hyundai Engineering & Construction is pursuing a plan to invest equity in a 260-unit build-to-rent (BTR) housing project in Chatswood, Sydney, while taking part in design and technical review as well as construction management (CM). Under the structure, a local company handles construction and rental operations while Hyundai Engineering & Construction shares in the development and leasing income on the strength of its technology and project management capabilities.