No more rumour or speculation. It has been officially announced to the press today that the Central group have purchased 40 rai of land in the city centre for a sum of 7,000 million baht. It includes the Chareonsri Grand hotel, the adjoining shopping centre and the land opposite (farang alley). There is no announcement as yet, how it is to be redeveloped, or when, but they confirm the site clearance will start , as from 28th this month. As they were the potential partner for the Udon Centre , near the railway station, this of course almost certainly is the death of that project under its present planned format.

Wow that is certainly some sort of price. Big piece of land though.
Did I imagining it, or is there a road sign when you enter from the Dwang Dang that actually says that the road is private as well??? If so then I guess they could redevelop the site anyway they wanted to...Will be interesting to see what the plans look like when they are published.
Udon centre site -
Agree, hardly a need for another super centre now....
New housing development?? (bit close to the railway station may put the price down) New falang alley??? (That already seems to be Soi Sampantamit)
Anyone any good ideas for it????

With the parking tto the rear of farang alley bound to go, maybe they could make the railway site a car park!

Because I don't know where we are going to park otherwise!!

That's a lot of cash. figure they get only 4% a year back, rents and other payments would have to total 238 million baht or $7.3 million a month. Something tells me that the price of a Dairy Queen ice cream cone is going up at least another baht.

RALPHCUSENS wrote:maybe they could make the railway site a car park!

The first Thai city "park & ride" or is that "park & tuk tuk"???

As my wife kindly points out, that is really 23.8 million baht or US$730.000 U.S.

An ice cream at the mall is still going to be a little more expensive.

By the way, this seems to confirm that Central was stymied in their bid to build at the other site near the train station because of some with political power who had interest in the mall, lending credence to the old addage, "If you can't beat them, buy them."

.

I can't get around the 7,000 million baht figure, hard for me to imagine

It converts to about 221 million US dollars.

Hmmmmm.... that didn't help me either.

Now if we talk 500 baht......that I can understand. I wonder why?

BobHelm wrote:Did I imagining it, or is there a road sign when you enter from the Dwang Dang that actually says that the road is private as well???

Yup it does indeed have that in brackets on the sign (that is these brackets and not the metal ones )... Is it the Charoen family own the road?

I can just see the threads on here when it is finished. "200 Baht for a coffee - Philippines here I come."

RALPHCUSENS wrote:With the parking tto the rear of farang alley bound to go, maybe they could make the railway site a car park!

Because I don't know where we are going to park otherwise!!

The redevelopment plan will naturally take into consideration the parking provision, especially as BH correctly surmises the road down the middle is private and part of the sale. It is proposed that this will be a pedestrianised zone so the parking will be beyond that, but in view of the huge outlay it would be unduly optimistic to think it would be free , as now.

It is proposed that this will be a pedestrianised zone

Oh my God no!!!!!
This is Thailand so it will be a nightmare avoiding m/cs makes it more dangerous than the road is now!!!!

7000 million baht.......wow that is some Valuable deal for someone.

and can't see them selling coffee for 200 baht IA...unless it has cat poop in it of course.

This isn't Bangkok. It sounds like one landlord replaces another. Robinson's is in the process of upgrading the interior of their store. So I doubt that they have made improvements knowing of redevelopment plans.

The first thing the new landlord needs to find out is can the retail mix inside the mall be upgraded. If the quality of the stores can't be changed what is the point of redeveloping the site.

TIT I will believe it when I see it.

I've looked around on Google and some of the financial press on the internet but cannot find the press release or any other information relating to this transaction - if anyone can find it could they post it or a link to it on this thread.

It is quite possible that the 7,000 million may be some kind of asset valuation and not actually the cash consideration - acquisition and merger reporting often has its own smoke and mirrors

Could be on Udondee jimbo, but their website is not working..(at time of posting) www.udondee.com/

or maxudon.com.. http://www.maxudon.com/

Jing Jing wrote:This isn't Bangkok. It sounds like one landlord replaces another. Robinson's is in the process of upgrading the interior of their store. So I doubt that they have made improvements knowing of redevelopment plans.

The first thing the new landlord needs to find out is can the retail mix inside the mall be upgraded. If the quality of the stores can't be changed what is the point of redeveloping the site.

TIT I will believe it when I see it.

Jing Jing. For info only.Central Pattana Plc, The parent company of Central Group owns the Robinson chain so it is highly unlikely they were not aware of future developments. It is more likely the improvements were made because of them.They also own other retailers already in the existing centre including, Power Buy & Tops. The other department stores controlled by this group include Zen and the Siam Paragon in Bangkok.It might be of interest to know they are also joint partners in Big C along with the Casino group of France.
I am particularly happy as Central have the sole franchise for Marks & Spencer in Thailand.I might at last be able to buy some decent fitting underpants in Udon and Lee will certainly get some good English tea.