SEONGNAM — A long-stalled project to modernize Seongho Market in Seongnam has entered full-scale implementation.
The city of Seongnam said on the 30th that the facility modernization project for Seongho Market, located around 2020 Seongnam-dong in Jungwon District, has met the landowner consent requirement needed to designate a designated developer.
The project aims to improve the aging traditional market environment and create a mixed-use complex combining apartments, office facilities and neighborhood commercial facilities. Seongnam plans to use the project to make the market more convenient for shoppers and help revive commercial activity in the old city center.
The Seongho Market modernization project began in 2014. But it was delayed for 12 years as project conditions changed and the implementation method was repeatedly adjusted.
Under the eighth popularly elected local government, Seongnam reviewed alternatives to get the project back on track. In February 2024, Korea Land & Housing Corporation (LH), a co-implementer, demanded an additional 35 billion won ($25 million) in public support, citing rising prices and deteriorating project feasibility, making a review of the existing approach unavoidable.
The city then commissioned a feasibility study and a review of project alternatives. It subsequently shifted course, joining the project as a landowner holding city-owned land within the project zone and securing a public market in line with the value of the city's property rights and development gains.
The new approach is a small-scale redevelopment project carried out by a trust company. Seongnam expects this to reduce its fiscal burden while preserving public benefit.
After Daishin Asset Trust proposed its designation as the designated developer in September 2025, the city reviewed the project plan and held two briefing sessions. It also explained the direction of the project through individual meetings with landowners.
As a result, the landowner consent rate stood at 80.95% as of September this year, above the 75% threshold required for designated developer status.
Seongnam is pursuing administrative procedures with the goal of designating the developer in November. Once the designated developer is confirmed, follow-up steps including integrated deliberation and approval of the implementation plan will follow.
The site is slated to house a 24-story apartment building with three basement levels, along with officetels — studio units used as either homes or offices — neighborhood commercial facilities and the Seongho Public Market. Seongnam is targeting a groundbreaking in 2029 and completion in 2032.
"The Seongho Market modernization project, which was delayed for a long time, has entered a full-scale implementation stage," Seongnam Mayor Shin Sang-jin said. "We will move quickly on the follow-up procedures to improve the aging market environment and inject vitality into the old city center's commercial district and the local economy."
