A $56 million plot and a 19-story building 'peeking' at its artists: JYP, home of TWICE and Stray Kids, scraps its new headquarters
J.Y. Park's agency dropped its Godeok project after a neighboring park was rezoned for a tall building, and will buy a building near its current office.
Foto: Reprodução/AllkpopJYP Entertainment, the agency behind groups such as TWICE and Stray Kids, announced on Thursday (Oct. 8) that it has dropped plans to build its new headquarters in Seoul's Godeok area, in Gangdong-gu. Instead, the company will buy a building near its current office in Seongnae-dong, where it has been based since June 2018.
The project had been three years in the making: in October 2023, JYP paid about 75.5 billion won (roughly $56.2 million) for a 10,675-square-meter plot bought from state-run SH Corporation, and in April it secured a permit for a 17-story building with five basement levels. The problem surfaced that same month, when the agency learned that the land to the south, originally a neighborhood park, had been rezoned to allow a building of up to 19 stories.
Talks with SH Corporation and the Gangdong District Office failed — in August, SH said there were no procedural issues and that restoring the park was not possible. Besides forcing changes to the architectural design, the tall neighbor raised concerns about the security and privacy of JYP's artists, since it could overlook the headquarters. The building's designer, Hongik University professor Yoo Hyun Joon, criticized the change on social media.
