JYP Entertainment's Plan To Build A New Headquarters Ultimately Scrapped After Three Years

JYP Entertainment is leaning toward abandoning its planned new headquarters in Godeok, a neighborhood in Seoul's Gangdong district, KPOPIT has learned. The move comes nearly three years after the company acquired land in the Godeok Biz Valley development in October 2023.

JYP told KPOPIT, "There has been no change from the position we previously communicated." The company earlier said, "We received an official response from SH that restoring the site to parkland would be difficult. We are reviewing various possible responses."

The company's official position remains that it is weighing its options. Internally, however, the review has reportedly tilted toward withdrawal after the restoration of the neighboring parkland, a key condition for continuing the project, became unworkable and Seoul Housing & Communities Corporation, known as SH, rejected a series of compromise proposals.

The dispute centers on a 13,261-square-meter plot roughly 20 meters south of the planned headquarters site. When JYP bought its land, the neighboring plot was zoned as parkland. It has since been rezoned as a site for self-sufficiency support facilities. Under the new zoning, the plot can accommodate an 18- or 19-story building with a floor area ratio of 400 percent, tall enough to overlook JYP's planned headquarters.

KPOPIT spoke with Yoo Hyun-joon, the architect behind the headquarters project and a professor in the Department of Architecture at Hongik University's College of Architecture and Urban Planning. Yoo said JYP did not immediately choose to withdraw. The company proposed several compromises to keep the project alive despite the changed conditions, but SH rejected all of them.

"The first proposal was to maintain the same floor area ratio but introduce design guidelines limiting the building to six stories or fewer before selling the land," Yoo said. "We also proposed relocating the park so that any new building would sit farther away from JYP's headquarters. Neither option was accepted."

SH has said it reduced green space to fund school construction within the Godeok Gangil district in accordance with relevant laws. Other green areas are designated for preservation and cannot easily be reduced, the agency has said, which is why it changed the designated use of this particular park site.

Yoo said that if the headquarters project is halted, the loss will extend beyond a single building. Had JYP established itself in Godeok, other agencies, video production companies, concert-related businesses, hotels, and food and beverage venues could have followed, helping the area develop into a new K-pop hub.

"If JYP had moved in, Godeok could have become a K-pop hub like Seongsu, Hongdae, or Apgujeong," Yoo said. "Related agencies, music video production companies, and hotels could have followed, and foreign tourists could have visited as well."

He added, "Nearby land values also rose partly on the assumption that JYP was coming. If JYP pulls out, the long-term economic benefits that not only this site but the wider Godeok area could have enjoyed may disappear with it."

Yoo stressed that the debate should not be framed solely around JYP's views or privacy concerns. The central issue, he said, is the urban planning decision to convert land originally secured as a park into a development site.

"The point should not be that the park has to be restored because JYP's design is being ruined," he said. "From an urban planning perspective, the real problem is turning parkland that the public genuinely needs into a development site and selling it."

He said reducing parkland to cover immediate costs could cause greater losses in the long term. "It is the same as cooking the seeds set aside for next year's planting because you are hungry today," Yoo said. "The focus may be on building a school now, but the damage will continue for the next 100 or 200 years."

Yoo also noted how difficult it is to convert developed urban land back into a park. "I have seen cases like Gyeongui Line Forest Park, where railways or unused land were turned into parks. But it is very rare to see an urban park converted into a development site," he said. "Urban land prices keep rising, so once a park is removed, it is essentially impossible to restore it."

Yoo also questioned the consistency of Seoul's approach, noting that the city has argued that Yongsan Park should be protected while its public corporation, SH, has rezoned parkland for development.

"I do not understand why the argument that Yongsan Park should not be developed for housing is not applied consistently to Godeok," he said. "Policy needs to be consistent. The party that needs to resolve this is the Seoul Metropolitan Government, not SH or the Gangdong District Office."

On the direction JYP is taking, Yoo said, "A private company makes decisions based on its own interests and the conditions of its project. This cannot be seen as an overreaction."

He added, "The best solution is for SH to restore the site as a park and secure the school construction costs through another source. The Seoul Metropolitan Government needs to take another look at how this decision will affect the city's long-term value."