[THE INVESTOR] Shinsegae Group is set to open South Korea’s largest shopping theme park in Hanam, southeast of Seoul, on Sept. 8 to offer a range of options for shopping, leisure and culinary experiences.

“Starfield Hanam” is a three-story building with four underground floors, covering an area spanning 460,000 square meters located some 20 kilometers southeast of Seoul. It’s equivalent to 70 football fields, big enough for visitors to day trip to without leaving the shopping mall that houses 750 brand stores and a parking space for 6,200 vehicles.

The 1 trillion won (US$916.5 million) joint investment with Taubman, a US shopping mall owner and operator, is the Korean retail giant’s ambitious project to revitalize its offline retail channel in the face of tougher competition with emerging online and mobile malls.

“This is Korea’s largest suburban shopping mall that provides shopping, leisure and rejuvenating experiences in one place,” Lim Young-lock, vice president of Shinsegae Property, the group‘s property development unit, said during a press meeting on Sept. 5.

Starfield Hanam targets to post 820 billion in sales in the first year, hoping to raise it to 5 trillion won within 4-5 years, Lim said.

(theinvestor@heraldcorp.com)