Jeju Healthcare Town stalled for 9 years... JDC signs deal to buy back Green Jeju assets for 148 billion won

【Financial News, Jeju—Reporter Jeong Yong-bok】 The Jeju Free International City Development Center (JDC) has signed an asset buyback deal worth 148 billion won to revive Jeju Healthcare Town, where construction has been suspended since 2017. The public agency’s decision to reacquire the project site, left idle for years after investment by Chinese capital was halted, has opened the possibility of resuming construction. However, controversy remains over whether the purchase price is appropriate and who was responsible for managing the project in the past.
JDC said on the 2nd that it had signed an asset acquisition and transfer agreement with Green Jeju Healthcare Town Co., Ltd. (Green Jeju) on Oct. 28 at the Jeju Healthcare Town Medical Service Center in Seogwipo City. The purchase covers nine parcels of project land owned by Green Jeju, totaling 204,917 square meters, and two buildings whose construction has not been completed. The contract price is 148 billion won.
The key feature of the deal is that it links JDC’s purchase of the assets with Green Jeju’s reinvestment in the remaining project. Green Jeju agreed to invest at least 50% of the sale proceeds in the remaining project area: seven Wellness Mall sites totaling 38,225 square meters. The Wellness Mall is a planned commercial and amenity space for medical, health management and recreation facilities.
Green Jeju aims to begin safety inspections at the construction site and recruit new staff by the end of this year, resume construction in the first half of 2027 and complete the project in 2029. JDC will also begin improvements to the complex and, starting next year, proceed with revisions to the development plan and the permitting process. It also plans to develop a new use for the unfinished Healing Spiral Hotel.
Jeju Healthcare Town is a project to create a mixed-use complex combining medical, tourism and recreational functions in the Donghong-dong and Topyeong-dong areas of Seogwipo City. JDC sold about 360,000 square meters of project land to China’s Greenland Group for 107.9 billion won in two transactions, in 2012 and 2014.

The Greenland side pledged investment in the 1 trillion won range and large-scale hiring, but construction was halted in 2017 due to China’s restrictions on overseas investment and financing problems, among other factors. According to materials submitted by JDC and disclosed at the parliamentary audit on Oct. 15, only 636 billion won—about 63% of the initially pledged 1.013 trillion won—had been invested. Of the 3,965 jobs planned, just 125 had been filled as of August this year.
Questions were also raised about the public agency’s responsibility for the asset buyback. Rep. Jang Jong-tae of the Democratic Party of Korea, a member of the National Assembly’s Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee, pointed out at the parliamentary audit that the land now being repurchased had previously been sold for 58.1 billion won, while its appraised value had reached 190.6 billion won. He also criticized JDC for not exercising its repurchase right or right to claim penalties despite Green Jeju’s breach of contract.
The contract signed this time is worth 148 billion won. However, the earlier figure of 58.1 billion won was the sale price of the land, while the current amount also includes two unfinished buildings, making a direct comparison on the same basis difficult. The appropriateness of the purchase price and the reasons for not exercising rights under the previous contract warrant separate scrutiny.
JDC Chairman Song Seok-eon explained that the decision to revive the project was intended to fulfill a promise to the residents who provided land for the development of the healthcare town and to the people of Jeju. He went on to say that JDC would work with Green Jeju to develop the healthcare town into a mixed-use medical complex welcomed by the local community.


[email protected] Jeong Yong-bok Reporter