SEOUL, KOREA - A large-scale shopping center will be built in Guwol-dong, Incheon, by Lotte Shopping. The retail operator said on January 9 that it was selected as the preferred negotiating partner to acquire the site of Guwol Wholesale Produce Market in central Incheon.

 

 

Lotte will sign the main contract by the 23rd after completing the due diligence. The City Government of Incheon, meanwhile, set the minimum selling price at 305.6 billion won and is ready to negotiate with Lotte.

 

The wholesale produce market is located right next to the Incheon Terminal that Lotte Shopping had purchased at 900 billion won last year. The total area including the market and terminal will be 136,000 square meters, about 50 percent larger than that for Lotte World Tower & Mall (a.k.a. Lotte World II) under construction in Jamshil, near Gangnam.

 

On the produce market's site, Lotte Shopping plans to build mixed-use developments modeled after Tokyo Midtown or La Defense in Paris. It will host department stores, retail outlets, and movie theaters by 2017. Noh Yoon-cheol, Lotte Shopping's head of new business development, said, "We will revive the old downtown area of Incheon and create a new landmark to grow the city as a cultural center in Northeast Asia."