Siam Piwat, the operator of Siam Centre and Siam Discovery, is exploring opportunities to develop five property and retail projects in Bangkok.

Managing director Chadatip Chutrakul said the company would benefit from lower investment costs, particularly falling construction expenses, if it developed the new projects during the economic recession.

"We realise there are opportunities in the crisis. If we develop a project this year, we can save our construction cost by 20-30% compared to last year. We'll stand a better chance to get more quality contractors, who will dedicate more time to our work at the moment," she said.

The five new projects involve the acquisitions of existing hotels and office buildings, as well as the purchases of land plots for development into neighborhood malls and open-space retail complexes.

The land required for the new investment projects will range from five to 70 rai. Each project will need an investment budget of more than 100 million baht. About 35% of the investment capital will come from bank loans and the rest from the company's own capital.

Mrs Chadatip said a new wholly owned subsidiary, Siam Professional Management, was set up earlier this year to provide development services for individual developers, including security management and operation systems.

In another development, BIHC Trading Co, a subsidiary of Siam Piwat that runs Loft specialty store in Thailand, will turn Loft at Siam Discovery into a "mini" specialty department store in July.

Mrs Chadatip, who is also the company's vice-president, said BIHC would spend 80 million baht to triple the size of Loft at Siam Discovery to 3,000 square metres by converting the retail space on the fourth and fifth floors, which now house Habitat home furnishing store. The store renovation will be completed in August.

The 11-year-old Habitat outlet in Thailand will be closed on Mar 29 as its parent company, Habitat UK, wanted to focus on the high-end business.

"Thailand will be the first and only Loft Mini Speciality Department Store to be opened under a genuine concept from Japan. We are planning to open about 2-3 Loft stores on 800-3,000 sq m during 2009-2010 to respond to increasing customer demand in Bangkok and tourist destinations like Phuket, Chiang Mai and Pattaya," she said.

source : www.bangkokpost.com