Seoul City Government Designates Land for Sale By Korean Air as a Public Park

More bad news for Korean Air:

The Seoul Metropolitan Government has designated a large plot of land owned by Korean Air in the center of Seoul as a public park.  
   
On Wednesday, the city government announced it would designate the Songhyeon-dong, central Seoul, site as a public park, changing it from the current “special-purpose complex.”  
   
The redesignation will not come into effect until the Anti‑Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (ACRC) comes up with an arbitration plan between the city government and Korean Air, which opposes the designation. The procedure was initiated upon Korean Air’s request in August after Seoul City first proposed turning the land into a park for public use.  
   
Covering nine acres, the piece of land in Songhyeon-dong is located right next to Gyeongbok Palace. The company purchased it from Samsung Life Insurance in 2008 and had planned to develop a cultural complex.  
   
After years of failing to proceed with the project due to construction regulations in one of Seoul’s most preserved neighborhoods, the company announced that it would sell the plot of land along with other non-core property assets in February this year. It was part of a grand plan to secure funds amid a management crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.  
   
Now that the site faces a future as a public park, it’s unlikely that Korea Air will be able to sell it for the high price it was looking for. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but the public park designation pretty much means the only possible buyer of the property will be the Seoul city government. They will likely not pay what the land would of been worth if it was not designated a park.

Korean Air had been trying to maximize the sale of the property due to the ongoing loss of profits by the COVID-19 pandemic.