Five-storey shopping centre and carpark scheduled to open in second quarter 2008
A new property-development company has announced plans to develop a 1.6-hectare section of the Chatuchak Sunday Market into a five-storey retail mall and carpark.
The company, Thanasarnsombat Pattana, plans to spend Bt1.5 billion on the project, to be called the Sunday Mall. Completion is scheduled for next year's second quarter and it will occupy a small portion of the total 30.4 hectares of Chatuchak Market, opposite the Children's Discovery Museum.
Company president Rattana Torsutkanok said the project would generate up to Bt2 billion annually within the 12-year term of the company's lease contract with the State Railway of Thailand (SRT). Up to 70 per cent of the initial investment will come from the company's capital and cash, and the rest will be borrowed from Krung Thai and TMB banks.
Revenues are expected to cover the investment within three years.
Thanasarnsombat Pattana currently has registered capital of Bt10 million, but the company's shareholders will meet next week to increase that to Bt100 million.
Rattana, who owns a pet and pet-accessories import-export company called LP Aquarium, owns half of Thanasarnsombat Pattana. Five of her friends own the rest. Rattana also owned a pet shop in the Chatuchak Sunday Market before establishing Thanasarnsombat Pattana three years ago with the intention of securing the lease deal with the SRT, following the fall into bankruptcy of the earlier Sunday Market operator, Sunday Holding.
Last year, the Sunday Market's existing tenants resisted Thanasarnsombat Pattana's plans when the company attempted to lift existing structures off the 1.6-hectare plot and begin development of its Sunday Mall.
Rattana said the company now had the approval of existing Sunday Market tenants, who have been offered retail bookings on the ground floor of the new mall, which will be a pet-shop area. Construction will begin this year, and the occupancy rate of the new mall is already 50 per cent, following forward bookings.
She said the company also had a list of 300 retailers - many of them from the Suan Lum Night Bazaar and Chatuchak Sunday Market - interested in booking retail space in the project.
The company's 12-year lease agreement with the SRT involves payment of Bt300 million over its full term. Payments began with Bt30 million last year. The company also has the right to renew the lease for a further period.
The Sunday Mall will have five floors and a total floor space 47,000 square metres. Of this, 20,000 square metres will be retail space and the rest a carpark. The ground floor will be a pet-shop area, and 50 per cent of its space is already booked.
The second floor will have a shopping mall and chain restaurants, and the third floor will contain a food court.
The fourth and fifth floors will be a carpark.
The company will also set up an open outdoor auto-sales area with room for up to 200 cars.
Source: The Nation
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