Lotte Group, Korea’s top retail conglomerate, will set up a mega shopping complex in Incheon by 2015 to cater to the growing population in the area driven by the brisk housing and industrial development.

The Incheon Free Economic Zone Authority said Tuesday it forged a deal with Lotte Asset Development Co. for the 1 trillion won ($872 million) project. The company plans to break ground in the fourth quarter of the year.

The complex will house a department store, a discount supermarket and numerous shops, as well as a hotel and a movie theater on a 442,000-square-meter site in Songdo, the port city’s rising business district adjacent to the country’s largest international airport, IFEZ officials said.

“We’re anticipating that loads of local and foreign businesspeople and tourists will visit the shopping center thanks to Songdo’s terrific location,” said Kim Chang-kwon, chief executive of Lotte Asset Development, at a signing ceremony.

Kim said the envisioned facility was 50 percent larger than the one that the company opened a month ago beside Gimpo International Airport, Korea’s which chiefly serves domestic routes and travelers from its Asian neighbors.

“We will contribute to the local economy by creating at least 3,000 jobs as we did through the Gimpo project,” he added.

The IFEZ Authority, for its part, will provide the retailer with administrative and regulatory support for the project’s smooth progress, said Lee Jong-chul, chief of the agency.

One of the nation’s six tariff-free industrial zones, the IFEZ has been striving to entice companies and universities at home and abroad since 2003 in a bid to grow into a hub of business, logistics, education and tourism.

In November, POSCO launched its new research and development center in Songdo. Samsung Biologics is working on a drug factory, office building and research facilities. E-Land, a leading local retailer, also plans to open a department store there later this year.

By Shin Hyon-hee (heeshin@heraldcorp.com)