Looking For Somone To Take Over Office Space

[chanchao]

We're moving our company office. The current location is rented in Pantip Plaza Chiang Mai, the newest and most presentable of the computer malls in the center of town right at the Night Bazar. Pantip Chiang Mai, like Bangkok, is focussed on IT/computer trade but many shops/offices are not directly (or completely not) related to computers. For example there's a small real estate office there, a school/training facility, a direct-marketing company, Bangkok Bank, Office Depot and others.

We rented it as an empty space (an empty concrete colored area) and put in all the furnishings, divided it up as an office space, manager's office, reception area, storage closet, and kitchen/pantry. It has floating ceiling elements with lighting in it, combination of carpet & parquet floors and overall looks very nice. (We actually got an interior designer do turn it into something nice and not shoebox-like) The whole building has central airconditioning which keeps most of the office comfortable enough, however we added an airconditioner to the manager's office in the back. The total floor space is 62.25 square meters.

We're looking for someone to take over this office. The rent is I think quite reasonable for this location at 12,450 baht per month. We paid around 350,000 baht on designing and building office spaces, raising part of the floor space to create a separation between front-public area and office space, put in parquet, carpet, furniture, LAN network outlets throughout, etc. Has ADSL internet and two phone/fax lines (nice looking number) Looking to sell all of that for 250,000 or best offer; it is currently in use and ready to move in when we move out in a month or two. As they say in Real Estate 'just bring your bags', so perhaps "Just bring your laptop and plug it in."

PM me if you're interested in taking over this space. Being in a central, well known, easy to find, and high profile location with parking space and other conveniences has been very good for us. Especially when you don't need THAT much space, then renting here actually costs less than renting a downtown shophouse, while being more 'prestigious'. Plus you get all the little things that you don't have to pay for / worry about in such a building like 24/7 security guards walking around the building, plenty public toilets outside that are kept clean by the building management and a food court in the building who will serve you coffee in the morning and lunch at your desk. (Also you never run out of CD-RWs, ink cartridges or office supplies. )

[Loaded]

where is it located in the building?

how long is the current rental/lease agreement?

is there a deposit?

is it currently leased/rented to an individual or company?

what advantage(s) are there to taking on your space (apart from your fixtures and fittings) when Pantip are (were?) renting on very affordable terms to encourage the building to fill up and look successful?

[chanchao]

* Fourth floor (top floor). Rents are cheapest there because you get less people walking past. If you have a shop selling stuff and depend more on walk-in traffic then you'd probably want to be on a lower floor.

* Our rental agreement finished one or two months ago and we have not renewed it. We used to do yearly contracts but you can pretty make the contract as long as you want, or the minimum is 6 months I think. For longer terms I think leases are possible too but we never looked into that.

* Our current deposit is 54,000 baht; I would expect something similar.

* It is currently rented to an individual company yes. (ours) (As opposed to what by the way; I don't think you NEED to be a registered company-limited or whatever to rent. )

* There's no advantages other than taking over something that's furnished and ready as an office. In fact if we don't sell the fittings then we will remove everything that could sort-of be re-used and then the space is available for rent on the same terms (or any terms you agree with with Pantip.)

I guess I didn't make this clear specifically, but we are NOT trying to charge for the privilege to 'take over' a space that would otherwise not be available like sometimes people try with bars or selling-spaces in a fresh-market. This space WILL be available on whatever rent anyone wishes to agree with Pantip on in about 2-3 months; this is just me asking if anyone wants more than a big hole.

Edited March 5, 2007 by chanchao

[kash]

any signs there so one can have a look at the right spot?

[chanchao]

Just sent you a Private Message. I can dig up some pictures as well if anyone's interested. If you're going tomorrow, there will be only one person there and she doesn't speak a whole lot of English. Still I will make it known that strange foreigners will want to take a look at the place.

[chanchao]

Some pics. First ones are the designs. And it actually turned out spot on the same as the designer's 3D drawings. I think the only thing we changed was switch the carpet area and parquet area, so as to have carpet in the office and easier to clean wood for people walking in.

The idea is to have an open enough space so that people in the office can be seen from outside and see people walking in, but 'psychologically' separate enough through a raised step, low partial partitions and carpeting to keep them from barging all the way in. This works, most of the time. And otherwise there's sliding glass doors that you can close and lock.

In the center office area there's currently desks and chairs for 2 people, though if you put in one of those clover-leaf like office units, and/or desk space along the wall, you can easily fit more. Plus 1 or 2 in the manager's office. There's LAN sockets everywhere.

Edited March 5, 2007 by chanchao

[realthaideal]

Hi ChanChao, I thought you meant the robotics place, but you must mean the place in the corner with all the tables and learning stations, right ? I actually was the marketing manager for the real estate office last year - and one of the5 or so Farang in the building. We must know each other - but not by our secret Visa Forum identities ! Drop a line to say hi if you know me, though really, we must have met at some point.

And I will add that the places on the top floor actually get a surprising amount of browser traffic stopping by as many people end up looking for food while in Panthip. Even a small number of daily tourists and expats who live in long-stay hotel situations, and nearby condos come by just for lunch or coffee because it's easy walking distance, the food is decent, and it's all a/c all the time. We always had a wide array of Farang, Japanese, Koreans, and local Thais dropping by the office, spotting the window displays o the way to go eat.

I recommend something more geared toward tech, but the mall does have everything from birdwatching, to the school, to a hair salon, to GPS, and then all the computer stores.

Panthip, though quieter than Panthip BKK, is really quite lively as evidenced by the easily full parking spaces down below it. There's quite alot of biz going on.

That's my 2 cents' worth.

Good luck renting it out ChanChao !