Hyundai Motor Group to build 100-story skyscraper in KEPCO site

Hyundai Motor Group decided to build a skyscraper standing 100 stories or higher at the former site of Korea Electric Power Corp’s head office in Seoul’s Gangnam district and use it as office building, it was confirmed on Monday.

Hyundai Engineering & Construction held a Global Business Center briefing session for foreign architectural firms at its head office in Seoul’s Jongno district on December 18. The session was attended by 15 companies including SOM, which designed the Tower Palace commercial-residential complex, and KPF, which designed the Second Lotte World. The Global Business Center will become a general complex integrating Hyundai Motor Group’s headquarters, an automobile theme park, exhibition and lodging facilities, a convention center and a shopping mall.

Hyundai Motor Group’s decision to build a skyscraper within the GBC apparently reveals the conglomerate’s commitment to take a leap forward as the world’s No. 5 automaker, and its Chairman Chung Mong-koo’s determination to create a landmark of Seoul. After buying the former KEPCO site, Chairman Chung said, “It is an investment with a vision for 100 years to come.” Hyundai Motor Group will receive design concepts from foreign architectural firms, and pick one successful bidder by the end of next month.

If a building with 100 stories or higher is constructed at the KEPCO site, it will become the tallest building in Samseong-dong, Gangnam-gu. Currently, the tallest building in the area is the World Trade Center Seoul, which is 54 stories, standing 227 meters high. The tower building of the Second Lotte World under construction in Seoul’s Songpa ward is 123 stories, which will stand 555 meters tall.

Whether the project will be viable depends on permission and approval. The Seoul metropolitan government promised to increase the building-floor space ratio of the KEPCO site from 250 percent to up to 800 percent, but this is conditional upon the requirement that “the site should be developed within the framework of A ‘General international exchange district’ that the city government is planning to construct.” Hyundai Motor Group will submit its plan on the GBC project to the Seoul city government early next year.