Central Ladprao Closing

[DeathbyDurian]

So I heard today that Central Ladprao department store is closing for 6 months soon (or possibly forever) for renovations.

Apparently everything there is on sale, as the merchants don't want to have stock leftover.

Anyone else heard this? Supposedly it has something to do with the Central group and the owner of the property being in a dispute of some kind.

Is this true? Anyone have any more info on this?

Thanks

[tonywebster]

yes, I was there last night, today many items are up to 90% off, last night was up to 60% off. the missus has gone tonight, I don't have patience with slow people when it is not busy so tonight I would probably explode. I am not sure though whether it is the whole shopping centre or just the department store to be renovated.

[DeathbyDurian]

yes, I was there last night, today many items are up to 90% off, last night was up to 60% off. the missus has gone tonight, I don't have patience with slow people when it is not busy so tonight I would probably explode. I am not sure though whether it is the whole shopping centre or just the department store to be renovated.

Thanks for the info.

Any idea when the sale ends/store closes?

[dekestone]

Any idea when the sale ends/store closes?

I heard April 23rd is the last day. The whole shopping mall will be renovated. Mind you a lot of the shops are already closed. The plan is they will reopen again in six months. (Central Sofitel hotel will NOT close during this period.)

But yeah, plenty of bargains at the moment. Crowds too.

Edited March 25, 2010 by dekestone

[givenall]

yes, I was there last night, today many items are up to 90% off, last night was up to 60% off. the missus has gone tonight, I don't have patience with slow people when it is not busy so tonight I would probably explode. I am not sure though whether it is the whole shopping centre or just the department store to be renovated.

Thanks for the info.

Any idea when the sale ends/store closes?

I just heard that Central actually raised the list prices before discounting. Buyers be aware

[Lakegeneve]

So I heard today that Central Ladprao department store is closing for 6 months soon (or possibly forever) for renovations.

Apparently everything there is on sale, as the merchants don't want to have stock leftover.

Anyone else heard this? Supposedly it has something to do with the Central group and the owner of the property being in a dispute of some kind.

Is this true? Anyone have any more info on this?

Thanks

The owner of the land that Central Ladphrao and Sofitel grand is the SRT . They own the whole area bounded by Ho Wang, Phahon Yothin and Vihavadi-Rangsit.

Central has leased this land for years at below market rates but the last renewal of the lease (3-4 years ago from memory but I could be incorrect) finally required Central to pay the SRT a near market rate. Central was not happy as they have had a good run for years and the SRT is only starting to get its house in order in terms of the income it generates from its land holdings.

(As an aside, the SRT does not actually know how much land it owns as they have no central registry of holding but that is another story!)

Central Ladphrao does need a renovate and given the nature of the site site it makes sense to close the place down. Not sure where Central is getting all of its funds in the current economic climate given they have opened Chonburi, Pattaya, Chaeng Wattana and a couple more stores in the provinces in the last 2 years.

[Nuchanart]

Massive traffic jam tonight. The car is full, and people using all lanes are queuing to go in. My advise is to park at Tesco oposite and walk across.

[tonywebster]

Massive traffic jam tonight. The car is full, and people using all lanes are queuing to go in. My advise is to park at Tesco oposite and walk across.

My advice is to avoid the area totally, park at chatuchak park and the get the MRT the one station from chatuchak to central, this is what I did and probably saved one hour sitting in the traffic.

[beano2274]

The renovations will be for 6 months was there yesterday, the prices in central dept store were not that cheap, also the shops in Junction X (Basement) had started putting there prices down too.

With reference to the contracts with SRT, Sofitel has at least another 20 years left on its contract, maybe more.

[dave111223]

Massive traffic jam tonight. The car is full, and people using all lanes are queuing to go in. My advise is to park at Tesco oposite and walk across.

I just park at Union Mall and walk across the bridge.

Personally i don't see why Central needs a renovation...OK it's not Paragon but it's hardly falling apart, closing down the whole place seems a bit rash.

[thaihome]

...With reference to the contracts with SRT, Sofitel has at least another 20 years left on its contract, maybe more.

It has 20 more years to go because they just renewed it. Actually it has some 18 years to go since though they signed the new one March 2009, they backdated it to December 2008 when the old one expired.

Also, Sofitel is the name of the hotel chain, the lease is wth Central International Development Co., Ltd., or CID who sub leases it to Central Pattana Plc.

Link

TH

[andyww]

This is strange because the entire mall was renovated about 8 years ago. I remember when they did it. One of the changes from that renovation was the mouldy smell the mall used to have before was got rid of, probably by replacing all the aircon ducts.

[phetaroi]

I'm one of those who believes it really needs it. I had not been up there for about 10 years, and after arriving here to live last May I had reason to be up in the area, so I dropped in just to look around. So dated, a bit on the dirty side. Apparently Central also thinks it's in DIRE need, or they wouldn't lose the revenue they will by closing it all for 6 months.

[DeathbyDurian]

I was there this afternoon and I've never seen it packed like that. Here are a couple pictures I took (sorry about the second one, my cameraphone sucks). Reminded me of Jatujak it was so crowded.