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Busan Metropolitan City Launches “Public-Led Integrated Market Redevelopment Planning” to Transform Traditional Markets into Local Community Hubs

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Busan Metropolitan City (Mayor Park Heong-joon) announced that it will fully launch the “Busan-Style Public-Led Integrated Market Redevelopment Planning” to help traditional markets struggling with aging facilities, increasing vacancies, and changes in the consumer environment make a new leap forward as core spaces of the local economy.

The “Busan-Style Public-Led Integrated Market Redevelopment Planning” is a policy designed to apply public-sector planning capacity and expertise from the earliest stages of a project. Under this approach, the public sector initiates planning while merchants and citizens participate together, enabling market redevelopment projects to proceed swiftly and stably.

In particular, Busan Metropolitan City and the district and county governments will jointly take responsibility for the most challenging “initial launch stage,” performing planning, analysis, and coordination roles to establish a market redevelopment model that secures both project viability and public value.

There are a total of 189 traditional markets in Busan, of which 107 aging markets are in need of redevelopment. In the past, market redevelopment projects were driven mainly by the private sector, and many projects repeatedly lost momentum in the early stages due to difficulties in assessing feasibility, prolonged delays, and conflicts among stakeholders.

The main components of the integrated planning initiative include feasibility analysis and planning and design support through expert consulting, support for service contracts to establish project implementation plans, support for creating temporary markets to protect merchants’ livelihoods during redevelopment periods, expanded participation by residents and merchants, and the establishment of operating standards and standard guidelines for market redevelopment projects.

To prevent long-term delays and suspension of market redevelopment projects, the city will newly introduce “expert consulting” at the early stages of projects. Experts in fields such as architecture, urban planning, law, real estate, and feasibility analysis will participate to comprehensively assess site conditions and conduct in-depth reviews of project feasibility, measures to secure public value, strategies to protect merchants, directions for commercial revitalization, and the potential for linkage with public facilities.

Based on this process, the city plans to design realistic project structures that reflect changes in distribution trends and the digital environment, while also actively reviewing functional mixed-use models that integrate markets, housing, and public facilities, along with creative architectural designs.

The results of expert consulting will be used as foundational data for establishing project implementation plans and may be linked to publicly supported service contracts for preparing such plans. In February, the city will invite applications to identify consulting target sites, assess demand, and then gradually secure project funding to expand the scope of implementation.

In addition, Busan Metropolitan City will develop operating standards and standard guidelines to ensure that market redevelopment projects are carried out in a consistent and systematic manner, while also advancing related institutional improvements. By clearly defining procedures, application standards, and the scope of public support at each stage—from planning and design to permits, construction, and operation—the city aims to enhance predictability in project implementation and reduce recurring administrative confusion and uncertainty.

Through these efforts, the city plans to move beyond redevelopment centered solely on retail facilities and guide the transformation of traditional markets into local hub spaces equipped with social infrastructure functions closely connected to residents’ daily lives.

Meanwhile, to enhance the effectiveness of the “Public-Led Integrated Market Redevelopment Planning,” Busan Metropolitan City will sign a memorandum of understanding today (the 5th) with 16 district and county governments, the Busan Economic Promotion Agency, and the merchants’ association. Under the agreement, the public sector will be responsible for policy formulation, institutional improvement, and technical and financial support; the Busan Economic Promotion Agency will provide professional technical support such as consulting; and the merchants’ association will take charge of gathering merchant opinions and encouraging participation.

A consultative body composed of the participating organizations will be established and operated to share key issues and on-site challenges arising during project implementation and to continuously discuss tasks related to institutional improvement.

Mayor Park Heong-joon said, “This integrated planning initiative represents a new market redevelopment model in which the public sector opens the path for planning first, and the private sector, merchants, and residents work together to shape the future of markets,” adding, “Busan Metropolitan City will stand with them to the very end, providing merchants with stable places to make a living, citizens with a better urban environment, and ensuring that traditional markets once again become hubs of their local communities.”