The development of New Songdo City, a brand-new community in Incheon, South Korea, is being co-led by the Boston office of The Gale Co.
Imagine a city with New York City’s Central Park, the gardens of Paris, Chicago’s River Walk and the neighborhoods of London and you’ll understand the concept behind New Songdo City, one of the first U.S./Korean joint real estate ventures, a project that begins on a tract of empty land in South Korea and ends with a city larger than Boston.
Developers will begin with 1,400 acres of reclaimed waterfront property in Incheon, South Korea, and transform it into a self-efficient city complete with hospitals, international schools, opera and theater houses, a government center, convention center and office towers. For the next decade, John B. Hynes of the Boston office of The Gale Co. will co-lead the development. It will eventually include 40 million square feet of office space, 30 million square feet of residential space, 10 million square feet of retail space, 5 million square feet of hotel space and 10 million square feet of public space.
Hynes characterizes how he became president and director of the project thusly: “Purely by accident and invitation.”
The project’s Korean developers wanted an American partner, and the consultant on the search happened to be scanning the Internet for names at a time when The Gale Co. – which opened its Boston office in January 1999 – was one of the largest builders in the United States.
Hynes said that he’s already logged 19 trips to the site in the past 30 months. So what does it look like?
“Picture [Boston’s] Atlantic Avenue to Mass. Ave. without any buildings,” he said.
‘A Rich Mixture’
The city will be designed for 50,000 inhabitants and will include all of the premier elements of city living, according to James von Klemperer, principal of New York City-based Kohn Pederson Fox Assoc., the master plan architect for the project.
“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Klemperer said. “I’ve seen many of these ideas come and go; this is the first one with the reality of government support and funding.”
The city is being billed as the “Gateway to Northeast Asia,” and has the benefits of a Free Economic Zone, a designation that provides significant tax incentives for corporations and residents. Technology also will be a major focus for developers.
But the challenge, Klemperer said, is making sure that the city doesn’t look as if it were designed and built in one fell swoop. Klemperer and his team of 30 architects are banning the boring, sterile and monotonous.
“Cities happen in waves; each brings a different dimension – architecture is one layer over another so that there’s a rich mixture,” he said. “That’s what makes it exciting.”
In the world’s architecturally rich cities, pedestrians may wonder why someone built a church at a particular angle or why a road intersects a park at a certain juncture. Klemperer calls it “designing elements for surprise.”
Another challenge for designers is ensuring that the city grows as naturally as possible, so that its first residents don’t feel as if they live in a sterile environment. Klemperer said, for that reason, developers will first construct a large-scale central park as the nucleus.
And it’s a challenging project, he added. There are 30 architects on eight teams assigned to various zones, all of which must be coordinated and then collaborate with the Korean architect. While Kohn Pederson Fox Assoc. designed the master plan, in the end it will design probably only a dozen buildings. The idea, Klemperer said, is to choose leading architects from around the world to design the various pieces of the puzzle.
“As you travel around any city, you enjoy seeing the different accents and approaches,” he said.
Last month, the developers secured $90 million in financing.
The Gale Co., with a global portfolio exceeding 50 million square feet of office space, is based in Florham Park, N.J. Most recently, as the local partner for The Gale Co., Hynes developed One Lincoln St., a $500 million, 1 million-square-foot, 36-story high-rise in Boston’s Financial District, a building now 100 percent leased to State Street Corp.
While the challenges are obvious, from cultural to exchange rates and political stability, Hynes said the group will take it one building at a time.
“You have to put the background music behind you,” he said. “It’s a country in need of this. We think if the design and marketing are done well, it will be a success.”
Kristie DiSalvo may be reached at kdisalvo@thewarrengroup.com.
