[비즈한국] Lotte Shopping023530 is considering applying its "Time Villas" brand to the Lotte Mall Songdo project currently under development in Songdo, Incheon. As the project is now included in the Time Villas mid-to-long-term roadmap, attention is focused on whether this will add momentum to a project that has been stalled for over 10 years.
Lotte Mall Songdo Renamed "Time Villas Songdo": Is 2026 Completion Possible?
On July 23, Lotte Department Store held a strategy sharing session for the second half of the year. This strategy meeting is held twice a year to discuss ways to enhance the competitiveness of the department store. The meeting was attended by Lotte Department Store CEO Jung Joon-ho, key executives, and store managers from all branches, and it is reported that the company shared its mid-to-long-term roadmap for its new complex shopping mall brand, "Time Villas."
The meeting included discussions on additional development plans for regions beyond Time Villas Suwon, including Daejeon and Incheon. The goal is to develop Time Villas Suseong in Daegu and Time Villas Songdo in Incheon into landmark-level premium complex shopping malls. In particular, as Lotte Shopping solidifies its development plan for Time Villas Songdo, expectations are growing that the Lotte Mall Songdo project, which has been shelved for more than a decade, might finally gain speed.
In 2011, Lotte Shopping purchased a 65,016㎡ (approx. 19,600 pyeong) site in the Songdo International Business District for 145 billion won. The original plan was to build Lotte Mall Songdo, a resort-style complex shopping mall. However, over a decade later, the project remains at a standstill.
Since purchasing the land in 2011, Lotte Shopping has delayed the start of construction, changing its business plans several times. Lotte Shopping’s most recent design change occurred at the end of last year. In September of last year, the company submitted an application for a design change for the building permit to the Incheon Free Economic Zone Authority and received approval in December.
With the approval of the building change permit at the end of last year, Lotte Shopping announced that it would postpone the completion date of Lotte Mall Songdo by one year—from December 2025 to December 2026—and begin construction during the first half of this year. However, about eight months have passed since the permit was approved, and the construction site shows no major visible progress.
Local residents have begun to sarcastically refer to the project as "trowel construction" due to the lack of visible progress. One Songdo resident said, "They don't seem to have any intention of building it. I saw drone footage in a local community, and nothing was happening," adding, "Can they even meet the completion schedule under these circumstances? Those who were waiting for Lotte Mall have almost given up at this point."
Lotte Shopping explains that it is currently focused on foundation work. A Lotte Shopping representative stated, "The diaphragm wall construction for the basement was completed in March, and geothermal and foundation work has been underway since April. Most of the current work is taking place underground. Because the area is reclaimed land with weak ground, we are concentrating on the bottom foundation." They added, "To shorten the construction period for the basement, we plan to use a top-down method, where underground and above-ground frame construction proceed simultaneously."
While Incheon citizens are hopeful about the application of the Time Villas brand to Lotte Mall Songdo, there is also concern that the rebranding could lead to further delays in the construction schedule. This is because there is room for Lotte Shopping to change designs and schedules again while transitioning Lotte Mall Songdo into Time Villas Songdo.
It has been confirmed that there have been no additional changes to the business plan by Lotte Shopping as of now. A representative from the Incheon Free Economic Zone Authority said, "We are aware that Lotte Shopping is currently conducting construction. We have not received any separate notifications regarding design changes."
Lotte Shopping stated that it will proceed with construction according to the planned schedule. A company official explained, "We are pushing forward with construction with the goal of completing it in 2026 as originally planned. We are doing our absolute best to meet the schedule."
Has the Fever for Large-Scale Investment in Incheon Cooled? Guwol Lotte Town Also Unstarted for a Year
There is a reason for the low level of trust Incheon citizens have in Lotte. The projects Lotte Shopping planned for Incheon have generally failed to pick up speed. Not only Lotte Mall Songdo, but the Guwol Lotte Town project has also failed to break ground more than 10 years after the land purchase. In particular, Guwol Lotte Town has drawn criticism from citizens as the project direction has deviated significantly from what Lotte Shopping had planned at the time of land acquisition.
After purchasing the former Guwol-dong Agricultural and Marine Products Wholesale Market and the Incheon Bus Terminal for 875.1 billion won in 2013, Lotte Shopping announced plans to invest 2 trillion won to build a complex cultural space. However, last year, the company changed its business plan to build apartments and officetels instead of a complex cultural space. Guwol Lotte Town is expected to consist of nine buildings of apartments and officetels up to 49 stories high, totaling approximately 2,300 households. The shopping mall originally planned will not be built separately, and only commercial shops will be created on the first basement floor.
Although the changed business plan was approved in August of last year, construction has not started even a year later. A Namdong-gu Office representative stated, "We understand that the demolition of buildings on the site is currently underway. There have been no building change applications since last August, and it remains in an unstarted state," adding, "We understand the completion date is scheduled for 2028."
Lotte’s position is that as it is a large-scale project, time is needed for preparatory work. A Lotte Shopping representative stated, "The business plan has been approved, and we are currently preparing for detailed reviews and preliminary procedures for the start of construction and sales. Subsequent procedures, such as demolition permits for the former agricultural market, are scheduled for the second half of this year." A completion date has not yet been set. The aforementioned official explained, "This is a large-scale project, and the completion timing will be finalized based on the construction and sales schedule."