Retail giant Shinsegae has decided to indefinitely delay its planned project to build a department store in Bucheon, adjacent to Seoul, according to the company Monday.

The company was chosen in September 2015 by the city to build a shopping mall in a new cultural complex. However, the project faced fierce opposition from vendors in the area, who feared the new mall would take away from their business.

“After negotiating with the city of Bucheon, we had decided to change our original plan from a mega shopping mall to a department store, reducing the size of the mall to about half,” a spokesman for Shinsegae Department Store said.

However, the change in the project in December 2016 failed to quell local outcry over the project.

The deal to purchase land for the department store was originally scheduled in March, but was pushed back to May. On Friday, the project was indefinitely delayed by Shinsegae.

Although the spokesman for the company told The Korea Herald that the delay was to allow more time to “clear up misunderstandings” regarding the actual size and nature of the department store, as well as “agree on strategies for joint growth” with local vendors, the mayor of Bucheon wrote in a Facebook post on Friday last week that political considerations were cited as the main reason for the delay.

“Shinsegae‘s reason for requesting the delay was that with the new government in place, signing the contract right away may put the project out of favor with the administration and lead to consequences,” Kim Man-soo wrote.

Newly elected President Moon Jae-in campaigned on promises to regulate large retailers in order to protect small businesses.

Mayor Kim wrote that the city of Bucheon had asked Shinsegae if the company was still willing to move forward with the project, and said that the city would decide the future of the project based on a formal reply.

“We are absolutely still determined to move forward with the department store, under the right circumstances,” the Shinsegae spokesman said. 

By Won Ho-jung (hjwon@heraldcorp.com)