Plans for Paramount Theme Park in South Korea
Image: Gyeonggi Province
(eap) The Governor of South Korea’s Gyeonggi Province, Kim Dong-yeon, recently met up with representatives of media company Paramount and South Korean Shinsegae Property group in Boston (USA) to discuss the progress and future cooperation on the construction of the Hwaseong International Theme Park. The large-scale project is regarded as one of the region’s most important tourism development initiatives. It is part of the urban development concept “SongSan Green City” in Hwaseong (Gyeonggi Province), which combines residential, business, and leisure areas and is planned to include several recreational and tourism facilities.
Image: Gyeonggi Province
Shinsegae Hwaseong Co., Ltd. (a joint venture between Shinsegae Property and Shinsegae Construction) plans to build an approximately 4.23-square-kilometer theme park on the eastern site of the “SongSan Green City” area in the Namyang-eup district of Hwaseong, incorporating Paramount’s brands and characters into the design. Shinsegae has submitted to the City of Hwaseong a phased development plan extending through 2050, with total investments amounting to 9.5 trillion KRW (around 5.7 billion EUR) – up from the originally planned 4.5 trillion KRW (2.7 billion EUR). The documents are expected to be presented to Gyeonggi Province in November. Construction is scheduled to begin in the second half of 2026, with the opening of the first project section planned for 2030. The project is expected to generate an economic impact of about 70 trillion KRW (nearly 42 billion EUR) and create around 110,000 new jobs.
Image: Gyeonggi Province
During the meeting with Marie Marks, Senior Vice President at Paramount, and Lee Im-yong, CSR Director at Shinsegae Property, Kim Dong-yeon reaffirmed the provincial government’s support for realizing the project “possibly ahead of the originally planned schedule.” As a global brand partner, Paramount is expected to integrate its well-known film and television properties – including “Mission: Impossible”, “Top Gun”, “SpongeBob SquarePants”, and “Star Trek” – into the park’s design. Marks stated that the collaboration with Shinsegae and Gyeonggi Province represents “a special opportunity to turn Paramount’s stories and characters into a real-life experience for visitors in Asia.”
Image: Gyeonggi Province
Before the Gyeonggi Provincial Government signed an agreement with Shinsegae Property for the development of a theme park, there had been plans for a Universal Studios location in Hwaseong (see EAP News of 4 Mar 2010), which were finally abandoned in 2020. ■
