RIP Cheap Charlie's: Chunk of Sukhumvit soi 11 reportedly sold to developers

[snoop1130]

RIP Cheap Charlie's: Chunk of Sukhumvit soi 11 reportedly sold to developers

Laurel Tuohy

Cheap Charlie's Bar.

BANGKOK -- Nine months from now, Cheap Charlies, and a handful of other popular bars and restaurants on Sukhumvit Soi 11, will be closed to make room for real estate development.

The owner of Cheap Charlies, beloved outdoor expat bar, has revealed that the one-rai parcel of land, where the bar has sat for 34 years, has been sold and the bar will be closed as of March 2017.

Ekkachai Budkajang, 32, son and partner of the original owner, Satit Budkajang, learned about this sad development last month when he got a letter from the owner stating that his lease could not be renewed next year. The lease is up in March of 2017.

Full Story: http://bangkok.coconuts.co/2016/06/09/rip-cheap-charlies-chunk-sukhumvit-soi-11-reportedly-sold-developers

-- Coconuts Bangkok 2016-06-09

[SoiBiker]

Cheap Charlies is an overpriced tourist trap. Shame about the restaurant alley round the back though, some decent places there. I guess they'll find other homes but it was convenient to have them all together like that, you could just head down there and decide what to eat when you got there. Pretty much the only reason I ever went to soi 11.

[Jip99]

Saddened to hear that. I enjoyed calling there on my visits to Bangkok.

The restaurants were nothing to speak of except for the excellent Thai restaurant at the end of the loop.

[jadee]

Not knowing much about business, I find it interesting that a bar can operate in the same location for 34 years and the owner(s) never have the cash/interest to purchase the land instead of renting. What would the reasons for that be? Obviously it's changed hands several times, does it just make enough to pay the rent and keep it ticking over?

[tolsti]

It's not just Cheap Charlie's, the massage/barbers on the entrance corner and much of the block are going as well.

[trogers]

Probably another condo will go up in this location...

[blackcab]

Not knowing much about business, I find it interesting that a bar can operate in the same location for 34 years and the owner(s) never have the cash/interest to purchase the land instead of renting. What would the reasons for that be? Obviously it's changed hands several times, does it just make enough to pay the rent and keep it ticking over?

It's not a case of not wanting or being unable to buy the land. It's simply that the owner would be extremely unlikely to split off a few square wah from a 1 rai piece of land. In the normal course of events you either buy everything, or nothing.

[zaphod reborn]

Good riddance Cheap Charlie's and hopefully that awful "Mexican" farce, Charlie Browns. Too bad we'll lose Snappers, one of the best fish 'n chip shops.

[anotheruser]

Before you say good riddance you should consider if you will like what will replace it first.

[wordchild]

that is a real shame. The Tapas restaurant and the French place next door are two of my favourite restaurants in BKK, Snapper is pretty good as well. It is/was great to have the choice of these excellent eateries all within one small sub-soi.

Couldnt really care less about Cheap Charlies, the Mexican or the rather average Thai place at the end.

Edited June 9, 2016 by wordchild

[Cuchulainn]

Probably another condo will go up in this location...

or a much-needed shopping centre!!

[balhamred]

Another piece of Bangkok history "upgraded"...

[DogNo1]

The six months that I spend in Bangkok costs me more than my six months in Tokyo. With the rapid rise in the cost of living there, I imagine that in a couple of years I won't be able to afford spending my winters in Thailand. A friend is now wintering in Phuket for half the price of Bangkok. I don't particularly like the ambience of Phuket but I like the scenery. I have to find somewhere warm for the winters since my joints and muscles ache when it is cold.

[Thainess]

The six months that I spend in Bangkok costs me more than my six months in Tokyo. With the rapid rise in the cost of living there, I imagine that in a couple of years I won't be able to afford spending my winters in Thailand. A friend is now wintering in Phuket for half the price of Bangkok. I don't particularly like the ambience of Phuket but I like the scenery. I have to find somewhere warm for the winters since my joints and muscles ache when it is cold.

You're totally right. Bangkok is FAR more expensive than Tokyo for almost everything, except taxis of course. It's a widely held misconception that Japan is expensive. It really isn't at all. You get First World services, amenities, infrastructure and educated people at a lower cost than Bangkok, which has none of those things.

[CaptHaddock]

Too bad about Tapas Cafe, a very well-run restaurant with good food.

[mcfish]

My condo is 2 minutes away and been going occasionally for years but it transformed from a school teacher hangout to a place for 20 year olds and standing room only after 7pm. I think he made a killing in that bar over the years. Bangkok is changing a lot these days

[charmonman]

Never really hung out at Cheap Charlie's much, but it is a piece of history I will be somewhat sorry to see go. Years ago ( probably 15+ years ago) the Suk11 Hostel and Restaurant was a gay bar. In the corner near Cheap Charlies was the Elysee (about 20 years ago), the forerunner of the Eden Club. Also on that block out on the main soi is the Domino Club, there since 1983.

Just in the last couple of weeks, three venerable old Bangkok institutions have announced their closing - Goldfingers, Check Inn 99, and Cheap Charlies. What's next?

[mcfish]

Probably another condo will go up in this location...

Cant deny its a top location for it, Nana bts around the corner. The sqm price will be off the grid as has been the case the last few years

[chicowoodduck]

The only ones who are moaning are the pissheads.....love the progress.....bring on more malls and upgrade the Soi....woo, woo! :-) Progress is a great thing!!!

[SoiBiker]

I like a drink. I just don't like paying over the odds to stand in the gutter in the Bangkok heat next to a load of braying tourists while I do so. So Cheap Charlies isn't for me.

[razer]

Developers will eventually kill tourism in Bangkok. Tourist have shopping malls, condos, hotel restaurants and upscale restaurants at home. Why would they come to BKK for more of the same?

[mcfish]

Developers will eventually kill tourism in Bangkok. Tourist have shopping malls, condos, hotel restaurants and upscale restaurants at home. Why would they come to BKK for more of the same?

Its still considered exotic and a bit mysterious. There is nothing exotic about Chicago or Sydney

[SoiBiker]

Developers will eventually kill tourism in Bangkok. Tourist have shopping malls, condos, hotel restaurants and upscale restaurants at home. Why would they come to BKK for more of the same?

Thaivisa: Predicting the downfall of the Thai tourist industry since 1982.

[Mickmouse1]

Exactly the same untold story of Imm Fusion Hotel,corner soi 50.The poor staff were laid off being told tempo closure for renovations towards the end of 2015.No renovation started, staff not getting paid and of course being a prime location 1 minute walk to On Nut BTS & LOTUS with expressway to the rear it is indeed going to greedy developers.I wonder if there are real buyers for the 10s of 1000s of condos going along Sukhummvit?

[tigermoth]

Exactly the same untold story of Imm Fusion Hotel,corner soi 50.The poor staff were laid off being told tempo closure for renovations towards the end of 2015.No renovation started, staff not getting paid and of course being a prime location 1 minute walk to On Nut BTS & LOTUS with expressway to the rear it is indeed going to greedy developers.I wonder if there are real buyers for the 10s of 1000s of condos going along Sukhummvit?

I live only 5 minutes walk from Imm Fusion and have stayed there before as well. It was very well run and had a distinctive Thai atmosphere which nearly all hotels lack. More condos? I know for a fact that the majority of the condos around the area are less than 50% occupied and many owned by chinese, Indian and other nationalities just as an investment but not occupied but with astronomical rent prices or sale prices. The greed of land owners is now destroying much of which attracted tourists to this city and causing the closure of many places thus slowly destroying the tourist industry which is a fundamental source of income for all, particularly the government. Contarary to statements we see about the increase in Tourists published by the government there is a very big decline. You only have to ask those working in the industry.

[tigermoth]

Further to my above posting another factor adding to the destruction of the city and its uniqueness is the basic absence of sensible and logical town planning regulations. The few they have a seldom enforced, for reasons we all know, and the standard of construction is woeful and unsupervised in the quest for profit. This of course has its consequences in unsafe buildings. Several recent disasters have highlighted this.

[MyFriend You]

The original owner "Charlie" died years ago, his brother took over & built a house in Hua Hin, wonder if he will move the Bar there..........

[Wiggy]

AFAIK Satit wasn't the original owner - that goes to his elder brother, "Charlie", who died in the 1990s.

[watcharacters]

The only ones who are moaning are the pissheads.....love the progress.....bring on more malls and upgrade the Soi....woo, woo! :-) Progress is a great thing!!!

With luck and a little more time, maybe BKK can even more resemble London or New York.

Sometimes small hole in the wall kinds of places give flavor to a city.

[darren84310]

Not knowing much about business, I find it interesting that a bar can operate in the same location for 34 years and the owner(s) never have the cash/interest to purchase the land instead of renting. What would the reasons for that be? Obviously it's changed hands several times, does it just make enough to pay the rent and keep it ticking over?

Yep, you obviously don't know business, that bar occupies a fraction of the land in question and the owner wouldn't sell just a small part and the price of that land is probably about 200m baht a rai.