Gajaeul 9 Jwawon Shopping Center to Be Reborn as a 180-Unit Residential-Commercial Complex as Redevelopment Gets Underway

[Financial News] Jwawon Shopping Center in Seodaemun District’s Gajaeul 9 district will be transformed into a residential-commercial complex featuring apartments, officetel units, community sports facilities and public rental retail space.
On the 16th, the Seoul Metropolitan Government said that the 19th Integrated Deliberation Committee for Urban Renewal Projects, held the previous day, conditionally approved an integrated review in four areas—architecture, landscape, education and the renewal plan—for the “Gajaeul 9 Renewal Promotion District urban renewal redevelopment project.”
Completed in 1966, Jwawon Shopping Center had deteriorated significantly and was designated a Class E disaster-risk facility in 2020. The surrounding alleys have also fallen into disrepair, making renovation urgent because of the risk of collapse.
The review raised the project’s feasibility by planning an appropriate building scale in consideration of site conditions and applying Seoul’s revised standards for renewal promotion plans. The standard floor area ratio was increased from 500% to 600%.
A residential-commercial complex ranging from four basement levels to 25 floors above ground will be built on the site. A total of 210 units will be supplied, including 180 apartment units and 30 officetel units.
Community living SOC facilities will also be expanded for residents. Public sports facilities, which have been lacking in the Gajwa living area, will be created on the second above-ground floor. They will offer various recreational sports programs, including fitness, yoga and Pilates.
The same floor will also include public rental retail space with approximately 25 stores. The plan is to help existing shopping-center tenants resettle by providing stable business premises and to minimize disruption to the existing commercial district during the renewal project.
Considering the area’s high volume of pedestrian traffic, the Integrated Deliberation Committee for Urban Renewal Projects called for safe and pleasant pedestrian spaces to be secured around the project site.
Myeong No-jun, Seoul’s housing director, said, "Jwawon Shopping Center, whose renovation was urgently needed because it was designated a disaster-risk facility, has secured a foundation for full-scale renewal through this review. We will actively support not only resident safety and improvements to the urban landscape, but also the resettlement of existing retail tenants, so that the area can be reborn as a new hub for Gajwa."

[email protected] Choi A-young Reporter