Ministries of Land, Culture and SMEs to jointly back 'RE:CORE' project

Up to 24.24 billion won in national funds per site for vacant-shop and idle-building overhaul

The government is pushing ahead with a downtown revitalization project that will make use of vacant shops and idle buildings in regional cities. [Herald DB]
The government is pushing ahead with a downtown revitalization project that will make use of vacant shops and idle buildings in regional cities. [Herald DB]

The government is moving to revitalize the historic downtowns of regional cities by repurposing vacant shops and idle buildings.

South Korea's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced Tuesday it will jointly launch a pilot program called the "RE:CORE Project" with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, aiming to transform declining downtown cores in regional cities into vibrant spaces by attracting young people, entrepreneurs and artists along with locally rooted content.

The project is a cross-ministry urban regeneration initiative designed to restore the core functions of regional downtowns — hollowed out by population decline and commercial stagnation — by simultaneously overhauling vacant spaces and injecting new content into them.

The government plans to concentrate on renovating vacant shops and idle buildings in regional downtown areas that have been losing ground to population concentration in Greater Seoul, youth outmigration and commercial decline, then support the settlement of young people and cultural figures in the newly created spaces. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport noted that the vacancy rate for small commercial properties in regional cities stood at 8.5 percent in the first half of this year, up from 6.7 percent four years ago, underscoring the severity of the problem.

In response, the ministry will acquire vacant downtown shops outright or secure them through long-term leases and cooperative agreements, converting them into what it calls "downtown revitalization commercial spaces." The properties will be remodeled and repurposed as studios for artists, startup spaces, co-working offices and pop-up stores, with rent subsidies provided throughout the project period to help young residents, artists and entrepreneurs operate stably.

To ensure the revitalization effects outlast the project itself, local governments that draw up urban regeneration activation plans will be required to include an operating plan covering at least 10 years after the spaces are established.

Larger idle facilities in the downtown area — including unused public buildings, vacant motels and clusters of empty shops — will be developed into "specialized hubs" tailored to each locality's character. These hubs will serve as cultural and arts centers, startup incubators, commercial support facilities, and showrooms for local brands, and will be linked to surrounding individual vacant shops. The plan also calls for expanding infrastructure that downtown areas lack, such as parking, and improving the streetscape through signage and facade upgrades, nighttime lighting and themed street corridors.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism will run a parallel "downtown cultural content revitalization project" tied to the spatial regeneration effort, aimed at raising the cultural appeal of downtown areas and generating sustained visitor demand.

Signature content will be promoted in connection with local festivals, cultural facilities, commercial districts and online platforms, and a range of programs — including exhibitions and markets — will be staged at the specialized hubs and revitalization commercial spaces created under the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport's initiative.

The government will first select one to two pilot sites in each of the four major regional poles and three special zones outside Greater Seoul, with pilot projects set to begin in 2027. The plan calls for gradually designating two to three sites per zone through 2029.

Eligible sites are downtown or sub-downtown areas designated as urban decline zones under the Special Act on the Promotion and Support of Urban Regeneration, where vacant shops are concentrated and regeneration is most urgently needed under current urban and county master plans.

Selected pilot sites will receive up to about 36.5 billion won ($26.9 million) in total project funding per location. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport will provide up to 21 billion won in national funds per selected site over four years, with total project costs — including matching local government contributions — capped at 30 billion won, reflected in the supra-regional special account.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism will contribute up to 2.4 billion won in national funds for the production and promotion of signature cultural content, and up to 840 million won for cultural content-based downtown revitalization activities, also reflected in the supra-regional special account.

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups will give preferential consideration to RE:CORE Project-selected sites when they apply for related programs, including local commercial district development initiatives such as local-theme and promising alley districts, traditional market development programs such as century-old and cultural tourism markets, and small business lifestyle innovation support.

The government will hold a preliminary briefing session on Sept. 17 to outline the pilot program plans for next year and formally launch the site selection process.

Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Kim Yun-deok said downtown areas are the historic centers of regional life where economic activity, daily living and culture have accumulated over generations and people have long gathered, adding that their decline goes beyond a rise in vacancies to threaten the vitality of entire regions. "Through this project, we will connect the assets and potential that downtown areas already hold to new sources of demand, so they can once again serve as the foundation for regional growth and transformation," Kim said.


smh@heraldcorp.com