The Seoul Metropolitan Government is demolishing the Seun Shopping Mall skywalk that it built at a cost of 110 billion won.

According to Seoul City on the 2nd, the city will hold a public hearing this month regarding the plan to demolish the Seun Shopping Mall skywalk. A Seoul City official said, “We plan to collect opinions from residents and begin demolition work starting next year.”

The Seun Shopping Mall Skywalk is a 1km-long bridge and walkway that connects seven buildings: Jongmyo → Seun Shopping Mall → Cheonggye·Daerim Shopping Mall → Sampoong Shopping Mall·PJ Hotel → Inhyeon·Jinyang Shopping Mall. This facility was the core of former Mayor Park Won-soon’s Seun Shopping Mall preservation and regeneration policy. The Seoul Metropolitan Government began construction in 2016 with a budget of 110.9 billion won for the purpose of an urban regeneration project, and it opened in 2022.

The reason Seoul decided to demolish the skywalk, which opened less than three years ago, is because it judged that the facility was hindering the revitalization of the area. According to Seoul, the average daily pedestrian traffic (October 2022 to October 2023) for the entire skywalk was 11,731, only 11% of the pre-construction forecast (105,440). The Cheonggye and Daerim shopping arcade skywalks, which are commercial districts, recorded an average daily pedestrian traffic of 4,801, while the Sampoong and PJ Hotel, which only had bridges, recorded only 1,757. This means that the pedestrian toll is not doing its job.▶Refer to Hankyung.com <"If it rains, chaos will come"... Shocking recent situation of Seun Shopping Mall that poured 110 billion won (Blood Tax Leakage Detector⑦)>

The redevelopment promotion district including the Seun Shopping Mall skywalk is a representative business area where the policy directions of Mayor Oh Se-hoon and former Mayor Park clashed. In 2006, when Mayor Oh was in office, the Seoul Metropolitan Government designated the Seun Shopping Mall area as a redevelopment promotion district, and in 2009, the Seun Shopping Mall complex was demolished and a redevelopment promotion plan was established based on the integrated development of eight surrounding districts. After taking office, former Mayor Park canceled the demolition plan in 2014 and changed the redevelopment promotion plan to focus on urban regeneration.

In relation to this, Mayor Oh emphasized in his response to the Seoul Metropolitan Council’s policy inquiry in November 2021, “I once shed tears of anger when I climbed up to Seun Shopping Mall and looked at Jongno 2-ga and Cheonggyecheon,” and “I will definitely make a new plan.” In particular, he strongly criticized the Seun Shopping Mall skywalk, using the expression “a nail.”

Reporter Song Jong-hyeon scream@hankyung.com