Korea’s Mastern Buying Seoul Office Project From AM Plus for $220M

Seoul’s red-hot office market has produced another big-ticket deal, with Mastern Investment Management revealing its forward purchase of an under-development building north of the Han River for KRW 310 billion ($220 million).

The 11-storey office block is being constructed by AM Plus Asset Development in the Seongsu neighbourhood of Seongdong district, Mastern said Wednesday in a release. The transaction is scheduled to close on delivery of the completed project in 2026.

The finished property will target high-value industries in the IT, biotech and R&D sectors, capitalising on the building’s location a few blocks from Seongsu station of Metro Line 2. Seoul-based Mastern has made several recent acquisitions in Seongsu and expects the area to become a prominent business zone, said CEO Namkoong Hoon.

“Mastern Investment Management will continue to exert relentless efforts to unearth premium deals based on our accumulated expertise and outstanding track record in Seongsu district,” Namkoong said.

Seongsu Spree

Situated at 278-52 Seongsu-dong 2-ga, the new building will offer a total floor area of 30,000 square metres (322,917 square feet) with a standard floor plate of more than 1,300 square metres and ceiling heights of 3 metres (9.8 feet).

Those physical specs should enhance the property’s leasing competitiveness and appeal to medium-sized and large tenants, according to Mastern, whose acquisition price works out to more than KRW 10 million ($7,200) per square metre.

Mastern’s latest buy in Seongsu comes after the fund manager last year picked up a 10-storey, 1,500 square metre office building in the area, dubbed Musinsa Campus, and struck a forward-purchase deal to acquire a 36,000 square metre office project at 279 Seongsu-dong 2-ga.

“Given the relative price stability in property valuation amidst demands for corporate expansion and headquarters construction, Seongsu’s potential for value appreciation is considered high,” Mastern said.

Elsewhere in the South Korean capital, the firm late last year announced the sale of Centerpoint Gangnam, a nearly completed office building in the namesake business district, to local apparel giant F&F for KRW 343.6 billion ($261 million). Mastern said it sold the asset before interior construction began, in order to let the future owners implement their own designs.

City Heat

Seoul’s scorching office market continues to spark dealmaking in 2024, after Blackstone’s $593.1 million sale of Arc Place on Teheran-ro to local fund manager Koramco ranked as Asia Pacific’s largest transaction of a single property in the first quarter, according to MSCI Real Assets.

Along the same commercial strip, Hanwha Asset Management in March sold the T412 tower for KRW 330 billion, while IGIS Asset Management acquired the Metro Tower in the central business district for KRW 415.6 billion during the same month.

On Tuesday of last week, Mirae Asset Securities announced that it was in due diligence to sell a building it occupies in the Yeouido financial district to Woori Asset Management. One day earlier, KED Global reported that 20 bidders were queuing up for a crack at the Donuimun D Tower, a landmark office building valued at KRW 900 billion.