[The Herald Business — Senior Reporter Park Jong-il] Seoul's Gangdong-gu announced Wednesday that, as the district enters an era of 500,000 residents, it is accelerating its transformation from a predominantly residential area into a self-sufficient urban hub where jobs, commerce and culture grow together.
As part of the "2040 Gangdong Grand Design" action plan, the district has launched a comprehensive study on attracting office facilities along major arterial roads and revitalizing surrounding streets. Running through May next year, the study aims to expand business, commercial and cultural functions along key arterial corridors and large-scale development sites, and to identify actionable strategies for linking those functions to private development projects.
With transit-oriented development and other private projects gaining momentum in recent years, development plans have tended to skew heavily toward residential uses for financial viability. To get ahead of that trend, the district plans to conduct a comprehensive analysis of site conditions along arterial roads and survey mid-sized companies in the Greater Seoul area on their relocation, expansion and new-establishment needs. Drawing on those findings, it will identify categories of businesses that could be attracted to Gangdong-gu over the next decade and build an office-facility attraction strategy that matches available development sites to corporate demand.
Alongside this, the study will examine commercial conditions, transport accessibility, sector-specific demand and development potential along major arterial corridors to ensure that corporate attraction translates into broader local revitalization. Based on the findings, the district plans to propose business, commercial and cultural functions suited to the character of each area and to draw up guidelines that private developers can apply directly to their development plans.
If corporate attraction leads to quality jobs, increased local spending and higher local tax revenues, Gangdong-gu's self-sufficiency base is expected to strengthen considerably.
"This study is a core strategy for Gangdong-gu to leap beyond being a commuter-residential district and become a self-sufficient city where businesses and people converge," District Mayor Lee Su-hee said. "We will build a 'wannabe' city — one where everyone wants to live, work and raise their children."
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