Shinsegae Property Consortium has been picked as a preferred bidder to operate a theme park complex on 3.15 square kilometers of land in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, the company said Thursday.

The construction for Hwaseong International Theme Park has been stalled twice since 2007. In 2016, the landowner K-Water failed to sign a contract with a consortium to build a Korean version of Universal Studios due to lack of funds. 

Previous to that, Lotte Group had expressed willingness to pursue the project, but failed to bridge differences with K-Water on the price of the land in 2010. 

K-Water owns the land for the project since the water resources management agency reclaimed Lake Sihwa in 1994.

The latest consortium consists of Shinsegae Property, which operates Starfield, and Shinsegae Construction. It will put 4.57 trillion won ($4 billion) to construct a tourism complex which includes a theme park, leisure and commercial facilities including a hotel, shopping mall and golf course. 

The company said it plans to break ground in 2021 to open theme park facilities in 2026 and complete the construction by 2031.

According to the group, the complex will have an unprecedented concept, themed on K-pop and regional features such as the Shihwa Lake and dinosaur fossil site. 

K-Water said up to 60,000 people will work over a decade-long construction and will create 15,000 jobs at the theme park.

“We aim to build Asia’s best global tourist destination that will contribute to the growth of Korea and the region,” said Shinsegae Property CEO Lim Yeong-rok.

By Kim Da-sol (ddd@heraldcorp.com)