도시재생과 소매개발: 마리오아울렛 사례가 주는 정책적 시사점 (Urban Regeneration and Retail Development: Policy Implications of the Mario Outlet Case)

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 한국유통학회
· 수록지 정보 : 유통연구 / 22권 / 3호 / 91 ~ 118페이지
· 저자명 : 임영균, 변숙은

초록

본 연구는 경제적 관점의 상권 활성화 정책과 도시적 관점의 도시재생정책을 함께 구현하는 수단으로서 ‘소매주도 도시재생’의 개념을 소개한다. 소매업은 고용창출, 경제성장, 매력적 공간의 창출과 같이 지역공동체에 활력을 불어 넣어주는 매우 중요한 산업으로, 특히 도시재생사업의 초기단계에서 촉매역할을 수행하며 긍정적 효과를 유발하는 것으로 평가된다. 본 연구는 또한, 마리오아울렛의 사례를 통해 소매업이 도심재생을 적극 주도할 수 있음을 보여주며 그 성공요인 분석을 통해 정책적 시사점을 제시하고자 한다.
마리오아울렛은 아울렛센터 형태의 의류 소매기업으로, 낙후된 산업단지인 구로공단의 첨단산업단지로의 재편과정에서 지역경제와 상권 활성화에 크게 기여하였다. 이러한 성공은 마리오아울렛이 기존의 패션 소매상과 다른 차별적 사업 모델을 제시하였으며 도심이 지닌 입지적 특성(접근성, 지역클러스터 등)을 성공적으로 활용하였기 때문에 가능했던 것으로 판단된다. 이후에도 마리오아울렛은 고용창출, 사회공헌활동 등을 통한 지역사회 투자를 지속하고 있으며, CEO의 투철한 기업가 정신을 바탕으로 신규 사업의 발굴에도 힘쓰고 있다.
마리오아울렛은 소매주도의 상권 활성화 정책이 도시재생정책과 상충하지 않는다는 것을 보여준다는 점에서 성공적인 도심재생의 새로운 방향을 제시하는 대표적 사례라고 할 수 있다. 소매주도의 도시재생이 성공하기 위해서는 사업개발 초기 단계에서부터 정부당국 이외에도 개발기업, 투자자, 소매기업, 지역기반조직, 지자체등 다양한 이해관계자의 적극적인 참여와 협력이 요구된다.

영어초록

This study highlights the importance of retailing in urban regeneration. Urban regeneration aims to revitalize a region’s economy by improving the living environment and securing the region’s identity. Meanwhile, retail development can take a role as a catalyst for urban regeneration programs as retailing industry brings many real benefits to the deprived area, such as new employment and local economic growth. Some related studies(Guy 2008; Mitchell and Kirkup 2003; Walker 2002) also note that the potential effect of such retail-led urban regeneration on the community is hugely valuable. For instance, opportunities for promoting local businesses in the form of local supply contract can be created.
There are several key factors that bring retail-led urban regeneration project to a success(Chase and Howard 2008). They include clear and good partnerships with the private and public sector as well as representatives from the third sector, strong leadership and direction from the public sector, transparent operations and clear communications for building trust and confidence, attracting competitive developers, good quality design of the schemes and their connections to neighboring areas, and succession planning for the continued work of the retail development.
The current study sheds new light on the case of Mario Outlet retailer during the regeneration of the Guro Industrial Complex area in Seoul, looking for lessons for future retail development. Mario Outlet, started as Mario Trading Co. in 1980 with the women’s knit brand 'Carte Knit', is a leading company of fashion and retail business in Korea. With its over 600 well-known domestic and foreign brands, Mario Outlet became the largest urban outlet in Asia as of 2013.
Mario Outlet played a critical role in the revitalization of the brownfield site by stimulating neighborhood development and local economic activities. Its retail business has rapidly changed perceptions toward the site among investors as well as consumers. Soon after that, well-known large size retailers such as Lotte Shopping and Hyundai Department Store also launched their outlet centers in the regeneration area.
Our analysis on the Mario Outlet case found the following key factors for the retail-led regeneration process to be successful. First, Mario Outlet introduced a new competitive business model, so called an ‘urban outlet center’, to the country, which was differentiated from other traditional fashion retail businesses. The outlet allows convenient one-stop shopping experience by providing well-known apparel brands at up to 90% discounted price everyday along with other diverse categories such as furniture, cosmetics, and restaurants. Their retail service was attractive enough to create new market demand, thus the company could target not only their local area but also other consumers in the city and even foreign travelers.
Second, Mario Outlet made the best use of locational advantages of the inner city. Accessibility is one of the key success features of retail business and the Mario Outlet is very easily accessible by road and public transportations. Specifically, the outlet is located in Guro District, the southwestern part of Seoul, which provides transport links containing railroads as well as land routes to the rest of the country. In addition, the outlet has subway stations as well as bus stops nearby. <Figure 1> shows the current map of the Mario Outlet. Integration with regional clusters, such as various national fashion brand manufacturers in the Guro Industrial Complex area, was also efficient to carry out.
Third, Mario Outlet has invested significant amount of resources on the region through job opportunity creation, corporate social contributive activities, etc. Such investment provides reconnection to economic opportunities for the neighborhoods, increases visitor spending in the region, and promotes the community’s support for the business.
Lastly, the leadership of the CEO was remarkable. The President and Chairman Hong Seong Yeol opened Mario Outlet in the Guro Industrial Complex area in 2001. His business decision at that time was very challenging since the site did not seem to be attractive to retailers at all. For reference, the Guro Industrial Complex played a pivotal role in the economic growth with textile manufacturing in the 1970s, however the site was degraded to a brownfield as such labor-intensive industries had rapidly declined after 1990s causing many environmental problems. Nevertheless, the outlet center was professionally managed taking advantage of inner-city location. Its business model was competitive enough to attract spending power of consumers in the market, as well. As a result, Mario Outlet became the largest urban outlet in Asia, expanding its stores to two more buildings nearby.
Meanwhile, we found that some key success factors for a retail-led urban regeneration project were missing in the case of Mario Outlet. Above all things, there was lacking of strong leadership and support from the public sector for the retail development. Strong leadership from the public sector is sorely needed to formulate a clear vision of the project, to create ownership among partners, and to provide any necessary political backing.
The case of Mario Outlet presents a new direction for successful inner-city regeneration programs in a sense that the retail-led local economic revitalization effort can be harmonized with the government-led urban regeneration policy. Nevertheless, we suggest that ensuring the success of a retail-led regeneration requires several key endeavors.
First, especially at the early stage of the program development, there should be active participation of and collaboration among various stake-holders such as developers, investors, retail firms, community-based organizations, local authorities, and the government. Ensuring a range of good partnerships helps to maximize the local benefit from the regeneration project.
Second, for the success of regeneration projects, government and local authorities should provide public partners with critical infrastructures. The successful regeneration projects are those supported by the improvement and refurbishment of physical and socio-cultural environments driven by the government and local authorities. Furthermore, they should work together with public sectors to pursue wider regeneration objectives for the local community.
Third, the adequacy of the current retail exclusion policy restricting the opening of large stores nearby traditional markets and small road shops need to be readdressed. The evidence from the current study and other numerous case studies demonstrates that retail-led regeneration is contributing substantially and distinctively to improving local communities. For revitalizing and sustaining the local economy, traditional markets and small road shops located in the deprived areas of inner city need to be redeveloped with the help of large powerful retailers.
Lastly, retail-led regeneration should pursue collaboration between large retailers and small and medium retailers. As a matter of fact, retail-led regeneration needs a huge amount of investment from the public sector, and large retailers as a group of public sector play significant role in financing. Regeneration projects led by the large retailers might threat the survival of small and medium retailers, and thus raise serious conflict between the two parties. Providing a wide range of retail units from small, medium and large in the regeneration area might contribute to settle down the conflict between the parties and ensure the long term sustainability and viability of the local community.

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