Legoland Korea
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In this news report from a couple of days ago it seems that construction on Legoland Korea will restart in March 2019 with a completion date now pushed back to 2021

There are more legal issues around the previously excavated items. It seems that the investigation is being hampered by the company responsible for the excavation.

The Cultural Heritage Administration conducted a survey of residents (professors, ex-generals, civic group representatives, etc.) recommended by the headquarters and inspection of the state of preservation of excavated artefacts in the Chungcheong Midland LEGOLAND KOREA Project from October 17 to October 25.

On the 25th day, the last day of the inspection, the citizens visited the dolomite storage warehouse and checked 52 stone tombs that were dismantled in the middle. Suddenly, the ELLE development staff came to the tranquil inspection site, shouting and shouting, suppressing the citizens.

The threat was expected to prevent further discovery of problems in the dolmens storage warehouse immediately after being spotted illegally in the afternoon. "

Source: http://www.naewoeilbo.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=199602

Despite the signing of a new cooperation partnership two months ago, funding and legality issues persist. As shown in the above image, construction of the park has yet to begin.

Source: http://www.chunsa.kr/?p=41676

British-based Merlin Entertainment, which owns the operating rights for the Legoland is re-kindling development of Legoland project. Merlin Entertainment Chief New Openings Officer, John Jakobsen visited Chuncheon, South Korea on May 14th, 2018. Gangwon Province, Merlin, and Elle Development signed a cooperation partnership agreement on May 14th to invest in Merlin's construction of Lego Land Korea and to take responsibility for the construction of Lego Land theme park. Merlin's investment is expected to be over 300 billion won (approximately, 300 Million USD), and Merlin's responsibility is to complete the theme park in 2020. So, the Legoland Korea project re -ignited by the Merlin Entertainment. In my opinion, Merlin decided to reinvest in South Korea with strong commitment is because the country's prolonged risks, including the North Korean nuclear crisis, have been resolved in recent Inter-Korean summits and planned future meeting between the leaders of North Korea and the United States.

It looks like the land that was sold to fund some of the building works has now been removed from sale to preserve the historic ruins and this means funds for this project have been removed. However, it looks like if Merlin pulls out at this stage they leave the project in a lot of debt and the city that has built up around the potential resort will become valueless causing a lot of issues for those who invested in LEGOLAND in order to gain preferential treatment for their own local projects.

When LEGO Land is lost, the loss should reach about KRW 1.29 trillion (as of last month) and the return of KRW 45 billion should be returned to the bridge.

As a result, local communities are suggesting that Gangwon Province should provide additional guarantees or direct investments as a last resort.

Still no movement on any type of construction, I think for now this project is dead.



Source: http://www.yonhapnews.co.kr/bulletin/2017/09/14/0200000000AKR20170914138100062.HTML

There is a lot of legal action around this build now and I can't see Merlin being involved much longer. The local preservation group have begun legal action against the local government over the damage of the historical artifacts. Meanwhile, the court case of the previous governor has ended with a prison sentence for fraud and corruption in relation to the contracts building LEGOLAND.

in the press release titled 'I want to the government of Moon Jaein', punish those who illegally damaged the tombs in the middle of historical sites dismantle development of LEGOLAND, the developer of Chuncheon LEGOLAND, urged to immediately arrest Choi Kyung

Citizen organization officials accused Choi, Min-soon, Governor of Gangwon Province to the judicial authorities

Source: http://www.gwjournal.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=3331

Some more interesting news around the infrastructure but seems like less confidence in the park than ever.

In the past four years, almost all development projects in Chuncheon have used the Lego Land theme park for publicity. Officetels, hotels, apartments, even small studio rooms advertised Legoland as a universal solver. According to the real estate industry, it was claimed that it was Legoland that led the apartment sales rate in Chuncheon and led the price increase. However, as the Lego Land theme park business fell into a hurricane, Legoland disappeared from the apartment sale advertisement recently.

A senior official of the city said, "When a bridge that can not be used by Chuncheon City is damaged due to a construction vehicle or if an accident occurs, the responsibility is transferred to Chuncheon City, Is the position. According to the official, it is argued that there should be a premise that TEDA will provide all the costs to be transferred to the bridge. I have built bridges at astronomical costs, and it is a wonderful situation that the basic autonomous bodies that need bridges will not accept them.

Generally, people seem annoyed that LEGOLAND has been used to drive the construction and price increases of areas around the development but now things such as the bridge have been completed and cannot be used because they lead to nowhere. The bridge is currently closed to all traffic except for construction workers on the site.

The video shows the new bridge and surrounding areas but also talks about how local councils are arguing about the damage caused to the bridge by construction traffic as no one wants to pay the bill the construction has landed them with without the theme park.

There are two stories here but I think combined they are significant. It would seem the city is happy with the infrastructure works but doesn't care much for LEGOLAND actually being built. They seem to believe the park will fail to be built.

The Mayor of Chuncheon, Choi Dony-Yong said, "Gangwon-do requested the participation of Chuncheon in the Legoland project but they rejected it," he said at a meeting of the Happy City Chuncheon Creation Committee held on October 29th. The city is in a position to take off when the construction of roads for the city is over at the end of the year.
Choi said, "If the current method is used, the LEGOLAND business is judged to be ineffective for Chuncheon," he said. "Even if it is completed, Chuncheon should be completed after all the projects that can attract visitors are completed".

Source: http://www.chunsa.kr/?p=32917

It is expected that the Lego Land theme park project will be ineffective due to the completion of the Lego Land theme park business.

On the other hand, Chuncheon City, which does not have direct responsibility for the Legoland business, is relaxed. Whether it is a business or not, it seems like Chuncheon has nothing to lose. The city has already confirmed the route of the urban planning road which is linked to the road via the load diagram. Even if the Legoland project is stopped, there is no problem with the function of the bridge included in the urban planning road.

Source: http://www.chunsa.kr/?p=32914

The translation isn't great and the legal bits are confusing but essentially there are ongoing trials to deal with fraud and embezzlement as part of the loans secured to build LEGOLAND Korea. Does anyone know if this will impact the site?

At the trial, some of the commission fees of W5.6bn, which occurred in December 2014 when ELL Development, a developer of Lego Land business, concluded a project financing (PF) loan agreement with Korea Investment Securities for business financing

Source: http://news.joins.com/article/22071292

It looks like the issues surrounding the excavation of this site won't go away.

"The Cultural Heritage Administration of the Park Geun-hye government has tried to look at the convenience of Chuncheon LEGOLAND, not to preserve the prefectural sites," the representatives of the National Assembly said in a press conference.

They said, "If the site is found in the construction site, the construction will be stopped and the site will be determined by the subcommittee of the store." However, the Cultural Heritage Administration did not stop the excavation of Chuncheon LEGOLAND, "We have allowed the excavation (excavation to remove artifacts and dismantle tombs in order to save relics and relics before development)."

Source: http://sisa-news.com/news/article.html?no=110269