Pyeongtaek City Designates Pyeongtaek Urban Development Corporation as Developer of Pyeongtaek Lake Tourism Complex

[Suwon Ilbo = Reporter Seo Dong-young] Pyeongtaek City announced on the 3rd that the plan to change the operator of the Pyeongtaek Lake tourism complex development project from the city to Pyeongtaek Urban Development Corporation received final approval on the 2nd.

Pyeongtaek Urban Development Corporation decided to participate in the tourism complex development project in May 2017, passed review by the Local Public Enterprise Evaluation Institute in December 2018, and received city council approval for the new project in June 2019. With the approval of the change in project operator, Pyeongtaek Urban Development Corporation began actively pursuing the tourism complex construction.

The Pyeongtaek Lake tourism complex was initially designated as a tourist site in 1977 and expanded to a tourism complex in 2009. Under the "Private Investment in Social Overhead Capital Act," private operators including Hyundai Padani & C and SK Engineering & Construction were designated as project operators to pursue tourism complex development. However, the private investment project ended in 2017 due to private operators' withdrawal from the project.

Afterwards, the city collected residents' opinions and reduced the scope of the tourism complex development project from the initially planned 2.74 million square meters covering Kwongwan, Daean, and Sinwang-ri areas to 660,000 square meters in the Kwongwan-ri area for public development. The city established a tourism complex designation (change) and development plan in April 2018 and received approval from Gyeonggi Province in February 2019.

Kim Jae-soo, president of Pyeongtaek Urban Development Corporation, stressed, "As the project operator has changed, we will proceed with compensation procedures and develop the site as a core axis of the West Coast tourism belt by utilizing Pyeongtaek Lake's natural characteristics and our excellent transportation infrastructure."

Kwon Young-hwa, chairman of the Pyeongtaek City Council, stated, "The city council will do its best to ensure successful implementation of the tourism complex development project."

Mayor Jung Jang-seon of Pyeongtaek City added, "The city, city council, and corporation will actively cooperate so that the tourism complex development project can be realized as soon as possible in Pyeongtaek, where cultural and tourism infrastructure such as attractions and entertainment facilities are lacking."

The Pyeongtaek Lake tourism complex development project is expected to allow local residents to receive compensation and tourism infrastructure benefits following approval of the change in project operator. However, many challenges remain ahead, including establishing a favorable investment environment and selecting differentiated tourism themes for the project.