Dignitaries, including Gyeonggi-do Gov. Lee Jae-myung, Vice Chairman Park Geun-hee of CJ Group, and President Kim Cheon-soo of CJ Livecity, participate in a ceremony to sign an MOU on the successful implementation of “K-Culture Valley” in Goyang City on Agu. 11. (Photos: CJ Group)

CJ Group’s mega project to build “K-pop Mecca” has resumed after a four-year hiatus.

If and when the project, also dubbed “CJ Livecity,” is completed as planned, there will be a new landmark theme park in Goyang, north of Seoul, which will comprise Korea’s first K-pop performance arena with 20,000 indoor seats and 20,000 outdoor seats, a hotel, theme park, and shopping facilities.

Economic effects in next decade are estimated to stand at 33 trillion won.

CJ Livecity, a subsidiary of CJ ENM, said Gyeonggi provincial government gave a go-ahead to Livecity’s 3rd revision of the project recently.

The project calls for constructing a K-pop performance arena, the nation’s first such facility, a hotel, a theme park, and shopping facilities on a site covering 302,153 sq. meters.

The project will cost about 2 trillion won. CJ plans to launch the project as soon as a construction permit is issued by Goyang municipal government. The project is to be dedicated by late 2024.

Once the K-pop arena is dedicated in 2024, Korea will have performance space corresponding with K-pop music’s global standing.

K-pop music has caused a global sensation with performances by prominent idol groups like BTS, SupperM, NCT127 and Monsta X, but there is no space for exclusive use for K-pop performances.

Such massive performances have been done in sports facilities such as Jamsil Indoor Sports Center with 1,100 seats, Gocheok Sky Dom with 25,000 seats, and Jamsil Main Stadium with 69,000 seats, and Sangam World Cup Stadium with 66,000 seats.

Construction of a music performance arena has become a long-standing project among musicians since it takes time and money to install performance stages.

CJ said the projected K-pop arena will be designed with the latest advanced IT technologies capable of staging global top-tier live performances.

A bird’s eye-view of “CJ Livecity,” a new landmark theme park in Goyang, north of Seoul, which will comprise Korea’s first K-pop performance arena. a hotel, a theme park, and shopping facilities.

The construction of a K-top performance arena is expected to bring about massive economic effects.

A report, issued by Goldman Sachs in May, showed that if the global music market, now dwarfed by the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, is revived, it is predicted to restore to between 34 trillion won and 35 trillion won in 2023 with an annual average growth rate of 4 percent to 5 percent.

In foreign countries, performance arenas have become pop culture meccas.

The O2 Arena in London has emerge as one of the world’s most famous performance centers by attracting performances by global stars like Michael Jackson, Brittney Spears, and U2. Cumulative spectators have risen to as many as 50 million since the opening of the O2 in 2007.

A CJ official said a survey, conducted by Samil PwC and Yonsei University Department of Urban Planning and Engineering, showed that the opening of “CJ Livecity” is forecast to bring about spill-over effects worth about 33 trillion won and job creation effects for 280,000 people.

The arena, content entertainment facilities and commercial & accommodation facilities are also expected to have an effect of hiring about 5,800 people and attracting at least 20 million tourists annually, the official said.

The CJ Livecity project started under the name “K-culture Valley” as CJENM struck a business contract with Gyeonggi provincial government in 2016.

The project was launched with a fanfare ground-breaking ceremony, but it has failed to make progress with lots of glitches.