How did the company come to acquire the headquarters building?
Readers who hear that the brand acquired a headquarters building wonder how they obtained it. In particular, the fact that they did not leave the neighborhood where they had stayed for a long time catches the eye.
When a building that caught their eye after being discovered by chance about 7 years earlier came up for sale, they participated in a bidding process involving multiple companies and purchased it.
First, regarding the timeline, LOW CLASSIC acquired its first headquarters building in its 14th year after starting the brand[1]. During that time, its workplace was continuously Sindang-dong. They worked in this area constantly since founding, and the time CEO Lee Myeong-sin spent in Sindang-dong is about 15 years[2][3].
The sequence of encountering the building was somewhat reversed. Rather than finding out about this building while looking for properties for sale, the Mirae Building, which caught their eye after being discovered by chance about 7 years earlier, came onto the market a few years later, and LOW CLASSIC also entered the bidding in which multiple companies jumped in and succeeded in purchasing it[4]. After acquiring the building in 2021, the construction work alone took over 1 year[5].
In this building now, the basement garden and canteen connect to the 1st-floor terrace via a spiral steel staircase, and LOW CLASSIC employees and neighborhood residents sit mixed together at Cafe Wild Duck[6]. Canteen refers to the in-house cafeteria. When the doors were left wide open during sample sales, residents also stopped by out of curiosity[7].
hmmm, the sequence of not choosing a new neighborhood but waiting several years for a building that caught their eye in the neighborhood where they were already working seems to connect with how this headquarters blends with the neighborhood today.
Specific details such as the number of companies that participated in the bidding or the purchase conditions have not yet been confirmed.