With JYP Entertainment planning to build its new headquarters in Gangdong-gu, Seoul, residents have launched a collective protest after a plot of land right in front of the new building—originally designated as a park—was rezoned to allow business and commercial facilities.

JYP is also reviewing response measures, as it may even need to alter the design of its new headquarters.

The "Residents Solidarity for Protecting the Park in Front of JYP's New Headquarters" is currently collecting online signatures demanding that the Autonomous Site 8 in the Godeok Gangil District be reverted to park land.

The controversial plot is a roughly 13,000-square-meter site in Godeok-dong, Gangdong-gu, Seoul, owned by the Seoul Housing and Communities Corporation (SH).

It faces the land JYP purchased to build its new headquarters, separated by just a single road.

In October 2023, JYP purchased a roughly 10,000-square-meter site for its new headquarters from SH for 75.5 billion won.

At the time, the Autonomous Site 8 directly across from the new headquarters was designated as neighborhood park land.

It is reported that JYP factored this into the design of its new building, expecting a park to be established there.

However, about one year and two months after JYP purchased the land, in December 2024, SH applied to change the designation of this land from a neighborhood park to an autonomous function facility site, and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport approved the revision in October of last year.

Autonomous function facility sites can accommodate not only business facilities, factories, and research institutes, but also hotels, exhibition halls, and commercial facilities.

JYP, which had drawn up its design plans on the premise of a park, stated that it is "reviewing countermeasures from various angles," keeping even the possibility of scrapping the new headquarters project in mind.

Meanwhile, residents in Gangdong-gu have also risen in backlash, arguing that the land use was changed without sufficient collection of public opinion.

Residents are demanding that the land be reverted to park use and that a public hearing be held.

Amid a flood of complaints, the Gangdong-gu Council has ultimately decided to initiate a legal review to see whether the land-use change can be reversed.

SH, the landowner, maintains that the rezoning was inevitable to secure funding for acquiring school sites.

If this leads to a legal dispute between JYP and SH in the future, key issues are expected to include whether there was an agreement regarding the creation of a park opposite the site in the land purchase contract between the two parties, and when SH began reviewing the land-use change.

Reported by Kim Minjeong | Video by Seo Byeong-wook | Graphics by Lee Su-min | Produced by SBS Digital News