What's Happening At Suriwong Plaza?

[rishi]

The main entrance of Suriwong Plaza is easily recognized by the wide marble stairs on Kotchasarn Road, opposite Thapae Gate Square, just around the corner from Thapae Road.

Have passed it almost every day for more than a year now and never really noticed - except that the building looked quite nice. Appeared like nothing but some well-to-do company's office building. However, today the doors were invitingly open, so I walked up the stairs and peaked inside - for no particular reason, except curiosity.

Much to my surprize, I didn't see some reception area surrounded by closed doors - I saw what once must have been a medium sized department store, laid out behind the row of small shops, dentist, cafes, bars and stretching all the way down to Kotchasarn, Soi 1 - where it had another entrance, locked. The place was all empty except for a couple of guys in an office of some kind.

However, the place - complete with escalators, etc. - appeared clean and well maintained except for a few "scratches" that would'nt take much neither time nor money to cure. Everything appeared well above average quality and it appeared that within a week, it could be a fully functioning department store, museum, gallery or whatever.

I'm not sure, but since it has never caught my attention as anything but a single office building --- I assume it has been "dead" for at least one whole year and there didn't seem to be anything going on with respect to change that situation.

The location, size and quality taken into concideration, the place must be worth several hundred million baht - maybe even a billion?

Does anyone happen to know anything about what has happened to Suriwong Plaza and what might happen?

[p1p]

The building is/was rumoured to belong to Mrs. Shin'. It opened some years back as a shopping Mall and was supposed to be a showplace for the original OTOP in Chiang Mai. Never took off. I am told the rents were WAY high and customers very few. (It was aimed squarely at tourists, not locals.)

Used to be a good pharmacy on the ground floor as you went in. A couple of places selling good coffee and one or two interesting shops, but that is all.

Been closed down & empty for some time. Rumour mill keeps having it re-open in some guise, but that has yet to happen.

[Ajarn]

The building is/was rumoured to belong to Mrs. Shin'

It's not just a rumour. She is the owner. It was reported as such in the press, and she was there for the opening

[Maejo Man]

The building is/was rumoured to belong to Mrs. Shin'

It's not just a rumour. She is the owner. It was reported as such in the press, and she was there for the opening

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Built and operated by the sister Toxin, and big brother was also due to come up for the grand opening when his Thai Airways flight mysteriously caught fire at Bangkok Airport.....Needless to say he didn't make it