BLand JV aborts US$200m themed village project in Korea

KUALA LUMPUR: Berjaya Land Bhd (BLand) has aborted its proposed US$200 million (RM640 million) joint venture (JV) project, an international themed village, on a 586,040 sq metre (about 145 acres) parcel of freehold land in the Jeju Special Self Governing Province in South Korea.

In a statement yesterday, BLand said it and the Jeju Free International City Development Centre (JDC) had mutually agreed that their conditional memorandum of agreement (MoA) on Aug 28, 2008 involving the development of the “themed village project” had lapsed.

The company had previously announced that the project would feature residential and commercial or retail components themed for various countries around the world that would showcase a variety of cuisine, beverages, culture and entertainment from various regions.

However, BLand said their earlier JV, Berjaya Jeju Resort Ltd, would focus their efforts on the development of a resort-type residential and commercial complex project at Yerae-dong, also in Jeju.

Known as the Yerae Resort-type Residential Complex, this project on a 183.8-acre land reportedly cost US$2.6 billion while gross development value was valued at an estimated US$3.6 billion.


This article appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, June 23, 2010.