The New Central Shopping Complex Is A Waste Of Space

[Ulysses G.]

Thanks, I'm planning a visit soon.

[Mobi]

They are building a new central complex at Chonburi, and from memory it sounds like the one they should have built in Pattaya, as it has more medium priced "consumer" outlets such as a Robinson's Dept store etc.

Presumably when it is finished, it will draw some of the Bangkok traffic that currently drives to Pattaya for a bit of weekend shopping.

I personally am convinced they didn't do their market research properly before building the Pattaya store. There simply isn't enough up market customers to make the place profitable, and IMHO never will be.

Strangely enough, again IMHO, the Pattaya store seems even more upmarket than some other Central stores, such as the one at Bang Na, and even the Chidlom store seems to be more consumer friendly and cater for those with smaller pockets.

Maybe they will eventually realise they have made a mistake and revamp the store for a "lower class/tourist" market.

[LennyW]

An afterthought perhaps???!!!

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[Phil Conners]

Perhaps. What is it?

[LennyW]

Well, here is the e-mail that i got along with the pics, from a freind of a friend of a friend....., make up your own mind!!

Xxxx,

I would avoid the Central Shopping Plaza on 2^nd Road in Pattaya "like the plague".

I took the below pictures (with my phone) when I parked there this afternoon. It looks like some recently added steel supports are holding up floors from collapsing. Talk about dangerous. They also drilled into the concrete support members to attached the big bolts that were holding up the steel bracing (see pictures) - further weakening the structure. I am not a civil engineer, but one thing I do know is not to drill holes into concrete support members.

I did not think much of the steel bracing until after the movie when I felt the entire building shake!!!!! NO SHIT.

After we watched a movie Xxx and I were ready to get dinner and having a coffee on the 6^th floor. I felt the entire building "shutter" a few times over the course of a minute. My wife felt it to along with some other people that just stopped "dead in their tracks". Perhaps it was the construction of the Hilton hotel (adding another 15 floors) on top the shopping plaza, but who knows. We got out of that building as fast as we could.

In fact we exited on the front elevator (near beach road) and I told Xxx to wait for me on beach road. I went and got my truck. I did not want my wife to enter that building - I told her no need for both of us to die.

Please do not take your girlfriend there because I have a six sense about these things and really feel that building in unsafe.

Regards,

Xxxx X Xxxxxx

[Phil Conners]

I have no idea about such things but here are the images in a more useful format:

Edited May 18, 2009 by Phil Conners

[LennyW]

Thankyou Phil.

[tropo]

. I did not want my wife to enter that building - I told her no need for both of us to die.

Please do not take your girlfriend there because I have a six sense about these things and really feel that building in unsafe.

I don't think much of these paranormal extrasensory perceptions that you claim to have, but if you really think you have some good, sound evidence to show that the building is about to collapse, why not bring it to the attention of people who can prevent a major catastrophe. There may even be some Thai Visa members inside the building when it collapses, so you could really help out here.

Edited May 18, 2009 by tropo

[Tokay]

I have no idea about such things but here are the images in a more useful format:

OMFG.

Well, that's all I need to see to stay out of that place. I felt it shake (a little) too once but dismissed it foolishly.

[Carmine6]

Is this a joke...I thought you lived in Patters?

I live in Chiang Mai, but visit Pattaya as often as possible.

Oh...sorry...well, please hurry down and see our Central and compare it to yours out by the airport...ours is on the beach. Spend some money here and keep the economy of our little metropolis going

I happen to have visited both of these in the last month. Very different places. I'll comment on Pattaya. Chiang Mai's Central is plenty busy and probably not so subject to disparaging views. The customers were mostly Thai by a large margin when I was there.

The one in Pattaya is a very good addition to the area. That whole section (soi 2 to soi 11??) seemed to me to be a "dead" area before the mall. I mean in the daytime. Really had to go down to Mike's shopping or Royal Garden. The other way, there wasn't much all the way up to Big C. The supermarket/mall at 2nd Road and Central Road and the tin roofed discount night market or whatever it's called on 2nd Road aren't that exciting.

Seemed to me to be mostly Thais buying things there. Looked like local professionals like doctors, businesspeople, etc. and middle class local families more than Thai or non-Thai tourists. I would say most tourists weren't buying. The prices are similar to what I'd find here in Los Angeles. I didn't buy anything, but I rarely buy anything other than a shirt or two while in Thailand, and that's more for dressier areas like Bangkok. The department store had a pretty nice prepared food area but I was staying in a hotel so I had no dishes or utensils to try things out.

The food court areas in Pattaya malls seem much less popular than in other cities for some reason. Or maybe I'm on a different time schedule for there and the same one elsewhere. This seemed to also be the case in Central, but they were still busier than the retail areas. I think putting it on the bottom floor versus several floors up helps a lot. (Witness Mike's Shopping. What a wasted view up there.) I ate at Central several times within a week, including the downstairs food court as well as the upstairs. I would say upstairs was mostly Thais eating and downstairs was mostly tourists. That's in the times I was eating around late lunch time or a late dinner time.

On the beach side there's a nice sunken stage area. On the last night of Sonkran (and maybe other nights) there was a Thai band playing. The place was completely full with the crowd bleeding onto the sidewalk, and hardly a tourist face in the crowd. I was pleasantly surprised since normally everything is so tourist oriented.

Conerning "waste of space", I'd take a mall like that over Mike's Shopping any day. Fine if you want to slowly mosey around the venue. But I always end up behind some group that can't do anything but meander side to side, stop at random spots to discuss unknown things and then pick up again just as I'm about to pass them. Not a problem at Central. Enough room for everyone. I think Mike's Shopping is much more a ghost town above the first or second floor.

[LennyW]

. I did not want my wife to enter that building - I told her no need for both of us to die.

Please do not take your girlfriend there because I have a six sense about these things and really feel that building in unsafe.

I don't think much of these paranormal extrasensory perceptions that you claim to have, but if you really think you have some good, sound evidence to show that the building is about to collapse, why not bring it to the attention of people who can prevent a major catastrophe. There may even be some Thai Visa members inside the building when it collapses, so you could really help out here.

Tropo, not me that is claiming to have these remarkable abillities, i just copied the e-mail as it was sent to me, as i said at the top of my post - make up your own mind.

[MeetJohnDoe]

Conerning "waste of space"

People with that view are just pissed that a couple blocks worth of beer-bars had to be sacrificed for this mall

I read that some sort of outdoor movie theatre is also going to be incorporated into the beach-side facade of the mall.

[Carmine6]

Conerning "waste of space"

People with that view are just pissed that a couple blocks worth of beer-bars had to be sacrificed for this mall

I read that some sort of outdoor movie theatre is also going to be incorporated into the beach-side facade of the mall.

Was there really a string of beer bars there?

On the north side, out the 1st floor doors there's still a line of old shops that I intended to look at but never got to. Directly accross the "soi" is a large food area that's probably half price compared to inside. Basically a covered seating area with either food carts or a kitchen area. I would guess a fair amount of employees duck out there to eat on their breaks or buy take away from there.

There also is a travel/tour agent and some other shops. Some completely drenched girls wandered in the door during Sonkran but they were carrying bowls of the talc so were shooed out.

Oh I forgot. Here's a sight unique to Thailand. This group was going around the mall announcing a new store or something on the ground floor. Only in Thai that I heard. The girl on the right is mouthing the words and the one with the bullhorn is saying the words. Also note the girl in the display in the background. They hired dozens of them to pose as manequins all around the mall. Some were so still I took a second look to see if they had some real manequins. Sorry for the zoom, I was eating at the time and shot way down the aisle.

[myfriendyou]

I felt the entire building "shutter" a few times over the course of a minute. My wife felt it to along with some other people that just stopped "dead in their tracks". Perhaps it was the construction of the Hilton hotel (adding another 15 floors) on top the shopping plaza, but who knows. We got out of that building as fast as we could.

I was in there Saturday afternoon and also felt a real shudder run through the building, made me and a few others stop in our tracks. Not being a builder or engineer I have no idea if this is normal but would be intrested in a view from an engineer, I put it down to the building works above and it wont stop me visisting just yet as I think it is a great addition to Pattaya.

Edited May 19, 2009 by myfriendyou

[Mobi]

. I did not want my wife to enter that building - I told her no need for both of us to die.

Please do not take your girlfriend there because I have a six sense about these things and really feel that building in unsafe.

I don't think much of these paranormal extrasensory perceptions that you claim to have, but if you really think you have some good, sound evidence to show that the building is about to collapse, why not bring it to the attention of people who can prevent a major catastrophe. There may even be some Thai Visa members inside the building when it collapses, so you could really help out here.

Tropo, not me that is claiming to have these remarkable abillities, i just copied the e-mail as it was sent to me, as i said at the top of my post - make up your own mind.

Maybe it would be a good idea for someone to bring these allegations to the attention of the press, both local and national, and see if some investigative journalist can't look into it and question the appropriate authorities.

There you are Howard, something new to write about instead of gory details of farangs being thrown off balconies or East European whores being arrested and then appearing back on the street the next day. Time to put your paper on the map

Or am I living in cloud cuckoo land?

[Phil Conners]

I have no idea about such things but here are the images in a more useful format:

As I said I'm not a builder and have no idea of the implications of adding those flanges (or whatever it's called), but they look dodgy and combined with the reports of "shuddering" and knowing the usual standards of constructions here I think it's worrying.

Isn't there any building engineers on this forum who can say if this is normal for such a building?

Perhaps it would be an idea to email the pictures and the report to some of the newspapers. The local papers probably won't print anything for fear of upsetting the real estate industry but perhaps The Nation or Bangkok Post have the balls to print it.

[Jingthing]

Or am I living in cloud cuckoo land?

I think so.

I am under the impression that there is no such thing as investigative journalism in Thailand. That would be too threatening. They wait until after events.

I did always wonder why I have never seen even one report about the taxi meters in Pattaya that never use the meters, and how that came to be ...

[RCR]

re: the shudders and added on steel supports -

Are we thinking of the Sampoong shopping mall collapse in Seoul in 1995? That was apparently caused by substandard materials, poor engineering, an extra floor added on later, and government corruption. There were warning signs - cracks in the floors, odd noises. 500 shoppers and staff got flattened. But such things could never happen in Pattaya.

[Tokay]

Are we thinking of the Sampoong shopping mall collapse in Seoul in 1995? 500 shoppers and staff got flattened. But such things could never happen in Pattaya.

It would be interesting to see the spin they would put on it if it did.

[SoiGirlHunter]

I go there to pick up girls, i wouldnt spend any money there

[Jingthing]

I go there to pick up girls, i wouldnt spend any money there

I reckon that makes you a Qual-i-tee foreigner.

[MeetJohnDoe]

Are we thinking of the Sampoong shopping mall collapse in Seoul in 1995? 500 shoppers and staff got flattened. But such things could never happen in Pattaya.

It would be interesting to see the spin they would put on it if it did.

The company survived the inferno that engulfed their flagship Chidlom branch years ago.

[PattayaParent]

As I said I'm not a builder and have no idea of the implications of adding those flanges (or whatever it's called), but they look dodgy and combined with the reports of "shuddering" and knowing the usual standards of constructions here I think it's worrying.

Isn't there any building engineers on this forum who can say if this is normal for such a building?

Perhaps it would be an idea to email the pictures and the report to some of the newspapers. The local papers probably won't print anything for fear of upsetting the real estate industry but perhaps The Nation or Bangkok Post have the balls to print it.

It is definitely not normal to ADD such supports to a structure AFTER the building has been completed and opened to the public.

[morrobay]

I sent the good photos by Phil Conners into a science , math and engineering forum asking the engineers to evaluate the after

construction braces addition.

So far I have only one reply from a physicist:

( quote from part of the reply ) "How long are the lag bolts ? we dont know. In any case this places the concrete surface elements

under the braces under additional shear upon vertical loading "

[LennyW]

I sent the good photos by Phil Conners into a science , math and engineering forum asking the engineers to evaluate the after

construction braces addition.

So far I have only one reply from a physicist:

( quote from part of the reply ) "How long are the lag bolts ? we dont know. In any case this places the concrete surface elements

under the braces under additional shear upon vertical loading "

Thanks for that morrobay, be very interested in anymore replies you get.

Not my field of engineering exactly, but i feel that the brackets are too small to be effective in supporting any load? and as suggested above the bolts/holes in the column would do more harm than good?

I hope someone comes up with a definative answer as to the suitability of this "afterthought".

[rafval]

those add ons are interesting, I would guess they have been added because the above structure has started moving, I couldnt imagine any other reason, which means the steel inside was in sufficient or not wielded properly, weather those add ons solve the problem I dont know but its certainly a sign that the building is substandard, there anyway, who knows where else and weather its the result of shoddy inspection or cost cutting

[PattayaParent]

Wasn't it a concrete framed structure? not a steel structure with concrete casing?

[SoiGirlHunter]

I go there to pick up girls, i wouldnt spend any money there

I reckon that makes you a Qual-i-tee foreigner.

[rafval]

Wasn't it a concrete framed structure? not a steel structure with concrete casing?

it would have steel reinforcing in it but obviously the building inspectors forgot to check it or were paid not too, on a building like that the steel should have all been photographed before being concreted

[Rimmer]

I have no idea about such things but here are the images in a more useful format:

OMFG.

Well, that's all I need to see to stay out of that place. I felt it shake (a little) too once but dismissed it foolishly.

That is A M A Z I N G those things are bracing if not trying to hold the floor above in place.

Remember the New World Hotel Singapore? The blame for that collapse was put on quote: Under-design, shoddy workmanship and cost-cutting by the contractors were found to be responsible for the collapse.

The Sampoong shopping mall collapse in Seoul in 1995 was due to them dragging air con compressors across an already overloaded roof. In both cases the building 'warned' people that it was ready to collapse by shuddering and cracking.

But neither of those events could apply here right?