Development projects converting aging telephone offices, factories and logistics facilities into mixed-use residential complexes are gaining momentum across southwest Seoul. Instead of large-scale land development, so-called "mosaic development" — redeveloping prime urban sites that have outlived their original function — has emerged as a new model for the area. With projects such as the KT Gayang Building in Gangseo-gu, which is shifting away from its telecom designation after 35 years to become apartments, taking concrete shape, the reorganization of urban space in southwest Seoul is now in full swing.
According to the Seoul Metropolitan Government and Gangseo-gu on the 12th, the district recently issued a public notice of proposed changes to its urban management plan and a detailed development plan for a special planning district covering the 4,887.6-square-meter KT Gayang Building site at 681-1 Deungchon-dong. The core of the plan is to abolish the telecom facility designation, set in 1991 as an urban planning facility, and develop a mixed-use complex with apartments, neighborhood commercial facilities and welfare facilities for the elderly and children.
The site will be developed with five basement levels and 14 above-ground floors, with a total floor area of 39,231 square meters, supplying 168 apartment units. More than half of those — 96 units — will have an exclusive floor area of 84 square meters, designed to absorb demand from family households. A floor area ratio of 439.98% will apply. The approach keeps the site's existing semi-residential zoning while allowing high-density development of a telecom site that has become underused. Gangseo-gu said the project "is significant in that it supplies housing to support the office and industrial functions concentrated in the Magok district."
Since the Seoul city government announced "Southwest Seoul Grand Transformation 2.0" in March — a plan to upgrade the functions of aging industrial areas and improve housing and living conditions — development plans converting existing industrial and office sites into mixed-use residential complexes have also been taking shape one after another. The former CJ factory site in Gayang-dong, Gangseo-gu, shifted toward introducing about 960 apartment units into what had been an industrial and office-focused plan, after a revised district unit plan was approved in July. The site of Christian Broadcasting System (CBS) in Mok-dong, Yangcheon-gu, also revised its earlier plan centered on a knowledge industry center, turning instead to mixed-use development including 244 officetel units — studio units used as either homes or offices — and 55 senior housing units. The Western Truck Terminal in Sinjeong-dong, Yangcheon-gu, which cleared architectural review in January, will be developed into an urban high-tech logistics complex with 990 apartment units alongside logistics, office and retail facilities.
Further development moves are also notable. Residential mixed-use development plans are under review at the Homeplus Gayang branch and the former E-Mart Gayang branch sites in Gangseo-gu. A plan to develop the Air Force base site in Doksan-dong, Geumcheon-gu, into a mixed-use space combining housing, industry and green areas is also being pursued. The KT Gangseo Building, the former site of the Hwagok telephone office, is also cited as a potential development candidate. Lee Chang-moo, a Hanyang University professor and Seoul's chief architect, said, "If development of various prime sites beyond the KT site is pursued through private-sector capacity, I expect it to have a positive effect on expanding supply not only in southwest Seoul but across the city."
Behind the growing need for mixed-use development in southwest Seoul lies the area's distinctive urban structure, in which aging industrial facilities and residential areas are intermingled. In Seoul's representative semi-industrial zones such as Yeongdeungpo, Guro and Geumcheon — spanning about 19.97 square kilometers — problems have accumulated alongside the aging of industrial facilities, including narrow roads and a shortage of green space and everyday amenities. On top of that, as corporate research and development facilities and office functions cluster around the Magok Industrial Complex, housing demand in nearby areas has grown. As of February, 202 companies had moved into the Magok Industrial Complex, including LG Group affiliates such as LG Electronics and LG Chem, as well as the Lotte R&D Center and affiliates of Kolon Group and E-Land Group. Presale prices for new apartments nearby are also running high. At Raemian Ellavine, a redevelopment complex in Banghwa District 6 in Gangseo-gu that went on presale in March, the presale price for an 84-square-meter unit was set at around 1.8 billion won ($1.3 million). That is the backdrop to the growing need to supply housing on existing non-residential sites in the Deungchon and Gayang areas adjacent to Magok.
The southwest Seoul transformation plan the city is pursuing is also focused on improving this urban structure. The idea is to upgrade the functions of aging industrial areas while expanding housing, cultural and green functions, turning the area into a mixed-use city where industry and daily life coexist. Analysts say small-scale development of prime sites is unavoidable if mixed-use projects — which retain and reorganize existing industrial facilities while adding housing — are to take hold as a new route for housing supply in southwest Seoul. Kim In-man, head of the Real Estate Economy Research Institute, said: "In Seoul, it is difficult to supply housing through large-scale development other than redevelopment projects, so there is no choice but to go with a two-track approach that also pursues small-scale development centered on prime sites." He added, "Southwest Seoul is well suited to this kind of small-scale development, so its potential going forward is high."