GOYANG — A plan to sell the KINTEX S2 hotel site in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, has cleared the city council after stalling through six rejections and one deferral. The city will now begin administrative procedures in earnest to attract hotel developers, aiming to ease a chronic shortage of lodging and build a stay-oriented MICE industry ecosystem in step with the opening of KINTEX's third exhibition hall.
Goyang said on the 27th that a public property management plan centered on the sale of the S2 site at 2600-7 Daehwa-dong and surrounding areas was approved at a plenary session of the first regular meeting of the 308th Goyang City Council.
The approval is expected to mark a turning point in overcoming the lodging constraints long cited as the biggest weakness of the KINTEX area, which draws 6 million visitors a year. Lodging facilities near the convention center currently total just 1,248 rooms, including the Sonocam and Glosters hotels.
Even once the 300-room anchor hotel, which broke ground in September, is completed, the total will reach only 1,548 rooms, leaving in place a structural problem that pushes visitors to Seoul and other nearby areas. Annual visitors are projected to top 10 million once the third exhibition hall opens in 2029, and at least 3,000 rooms are estimated to be needed by 2031, when operations are expected to settle.
Building on the approval, the city plans to move quickly on follow-up steps, starting with an appraisal of the site in the first half of next year, followed by the drafting of bidding guidelines and a public notice of sale. Rather than stopping at a simple land sale, the city says it will set conditions for carrying out the project that reflect industry views and measures to improve investment conditions, such as revising the district unit plan, so the sale leads to the construction of a top-tier hotel.
"After a long and difficult process, the sale of the KINTEX hotel site has finally reached a real starting line," Goyang Mayor Min Kyung-sun said. "We will carry out the follow-up administrative procedures without a hitch to sharply expand the lodging infrastructure we lack, and draw visitors into staying and spending in the area to inject real vitality into the local economy."