{"id":64453,"date":"2026-06-25T09:06:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T09:06:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/64453\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T09:06:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T09:06:12","slug":"hanwhas-kim-dong-sun-reshapes-portfolio-expands-real-estate-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/64453\/","title":{"rendered":"Hanwha’s Kim Dong-sun Reshapes Portfolio, Expands Real Estate Development"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"KimKim Dong-sun, Vice President of Hanwha Galleria<\/p>\n

A rendering of the reconstruction of Galleria Department Store in Apgujeong-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul. Photo courtesy of Seoul Metropolitan Government<\/p>\n

Hanwha Galleria is expanding real estate development into a key business alongside its department store operations. The move is seen as an effort by Kim Dong-sun, vice president of future vision at Hanwha Vision and third son of Hanwha Group Chairman Kim Seung-youn, to reshape the business portfolio as he takes on independent management of Hanwha Galleria and other units in August.<\/p>\n

According to industry sources Friday, Hanwha Galleria has set an internal policy to expand its operations\u2014previously limited to purchasing and holding real estate\u2014into a formal asset development business. Hanwha Galleria has operated a task force for real estate investment for about two years, and is now pursuing formal commercialization, including plans to convert it into a business organization. A person familiar with the matter said, “Within Hanwha’s Life division, there is a shared consensus to extend the real estate purchases conducted at the task force level into an asset development business.”<\/p>\n

Hanwha Galleria has successively secured real estate and building sites in major Seoul commercial districts. On the 24th of this month, it signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to purchase the Sunhwa Building and its land in Sunhwa-dong, Jung-gu, Seoul, for 213.5 billion won, and last February it bought H Square and its site in Seogyo-dong, Mapo-gu, for 87.5 billion won. Earlier, in April 2023, it purchased a site and building in Sinsa-dong, Gangnam-gu, owned by Chorokbaem Company for 89.5 billion won, and in December of the same year acquired a site in Cheongdam-dong owned by AS Development Co. for 22.5 billion won. The Sunhwa Building purchase, in particular, is larger in scale than previous real estate acquisitions, signaling that Hanwha Galleria’s expansion into the asset development business is gaining momentum.<\/p>\n

This move by Hanwha Galleria is seen as aligned with Kim’s business vision following his independent management. Hanwha Group plans to launch a new holding company, Hanwha Machinery & Service Holdings, through a spin-off on August 1. Under the holding company will be tech affiliates that Kim has overseen\u2014including Hanwha Vision, Hanwha Momentum, Hanwha Semitec and Hanwha Robotics\u2014as well as Life affiliates such as Hanwha Galleria, Hanwha Hotels & Resorts and Ourhome.<\/p>\n

With Hanwha Vision playing a central role in the tech division and Hanwha Galleria in the Life division, Hanwha Galleria is expected to position asset development as a new pillar of its growth strategy. As the existing department store business alone faces limits in expanding scale, the strategy aims to enhance synergy with the retail business by utilizing real estate assets in major commercial districts.<\/p>\n

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Indeed, major retail groups such as Lotte and Shinsegae have built business portfolios that combine real estate development and asset management functions on the foundation of their department store businesses. Lotte operates large-scale complex development projects such as the Lotte World Tower and Mall in Jamsil through Lotte Department Store and Lotte Engineering & Construction. Shinsegae has expanded complex shopping mall development projects such as Starfield, centered on Shinsegae Department Store, E-mart and Shinsegae Property.<\/p>\n

The Life division under Hanwha Machinery & Service Holdings, which holds department stores and hotels, is regarded as having the capacity to build complex commercial facilities. Adding the asset development business could create synergy that drives asset value appreciation beyond mere capital gains.<\/p>\n

Kim Young-hoon, CEO of Hanwha Galleria, also emphasized at the shareholders’ meeting in March this year, “We will carefully review various investment opportunities such as new businesses and real estate development to lay the foundation for mid- to long-term growth.” Hanwha Galleria’s recruitment of Koo Yong-chan, an executive vice president and real estate development expert, earlier this year is reportedly intended to assign him real estate investment work as part of new businesses, along with the reconstruction of the luxury wing of the Galleria Department Store in Seoul.<\/p>\n

An industry official said, “Since the department store business depends heavily on prime locations and space planning capabilities, there is significant room to combine it with real estate development. By securing assets in major commercial districts, Hanwha Galleria appears to be cultivating asset development as one pillar of its independent growth strategy following the affiliate separation.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kim Dong-sun, Vice President of Hanwha Galleria A rendering of the reconstruction of Galleria Department Store in Apgujeong-dong,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64454,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[35817,35815,355,10811,354,35814,35816,10813,8178],"class_list":["post-64453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hanwha","tag-asset-development","tag-department-store-business","tag-hanwha","tag-hanwha-galleria","tag-hanwha-group","tag-hanwha-group-spin-off","tag-hanwha-machinery-service-holdings","tag-kim-dong-sun","tag-real-estate-development"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64453\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}