Seoul City on Friday gave Lotte the green light to reopen the aquarium and cinema at Lotte World Mall in Jamsil, following a safety review at the mall. The company will also be allowed to proceed with the construction of a concert hall that had been halted.
Operations of the two key entertainment facilities at the Lotte World Mall were suspended after several safety concerns were raised following its official opening in April 2014. A water leak was found at the aquarium, while moviegoers experienced slight tremors at the cinema, which the company explained were vibrations from the sound system. When cracks were discovered on the food court’s floor, Lotte reassured the public that the cracks were part of the interior decoration. Additionally, a worker fell to his death at the concert hall construction site.
The problems at the Lotte World Mall structure itself and the occurrence of sink holes in the surrounding area, as well as the diminishing level of water at the nearby Seokchon Lake, created significant anxiety among the public, so much so that people stayed away from what was touted as the city’s newest attraction.
When problems kept cropping up at the Lotte World Mall, in December 2014 Seoul City took the drastic step of suspending operations at the affected facilities and ordered Lotte to resolve the safety issues. The suspension was lifted Friday after nearly five months.
Lotte and the tenants at the Lotte World Mall suffered from the suspension. The average number of visitors per day dropped from a high of 100,000 in the early days of the opening to some 54,000 after Dec. 16 when the two major attractions ― the aquarium and the cinema ― were temporarily closed.
The closure of the crowd-pulling facilities led to a steep decline in business for tenants in the mall, who suffered a 30-50 percent drop in sales. About 1,200 people lost their jobs as a result of the protracted suspension, and the halt in the concert hall construction led to 540 construction workers being left on standby.
The Lotte Concert Hall was also forced to cancel some 30 performances scheduled between September, when the hall was to have opened, and December. The company has had to pay huge sums for breaking contracts. Now the company expects to be able to open the theater at the end of next year.
Lotte is paying dearly for the safety problems at the mall. While most buildings suffer from minor hiccups in their early days, safety concerns at the Lotte World Mall were heightened because the country’s tallest structure is still under construction in the adjacent space.
The company said it is offering residents in the Lotte World Mall neighborhood free admission to the aquarium and the cinema from May 9-11 before opening them to the general public on May 12.
The City Hall attached several conditions to the reopening of the aquarium and the cinema. The company has also been ordered to conduct monthly safety inspections of the Lotte World Mall structure and to continuously monitor the safety of the aquarium and the cinema. The results of the inspections and monitoring are to be made available on the Internet.
Lotte cannot afford to have any more accidents, even minor mishaps. It should live up to its pledge to be proactive about safety and fully comply with the city’s requirements.
