Property Perfect is the latest developer with plans to enter the Sri Racha retail market after announcing that it intends to build a THB4.5 billion shopping mall in area. There are already two similar malls in the region including the recently opened Aeon Sriracha Shopping Center.
Construction of the new project, tentatively named Dara Harbour, is expected to start early next year and will be located on Sukhumvit Road in Chon Buri’s Sri Racha district. Assistant chief executive Theerathat Singnarongthon said that the new mall would become the largest shopping mall in Sri Racha. The company is hoping its project appeals to the numerous Japanese expats and residents in the region as well office workers along the Eastern Seaboard and tourists.
“Although the purchasing power of consumers in Bangkok and other provinces does not look so good, in Sri Racha we’ve found the expansion of industrial estates in the area, particularly by Japanese companies, is boosting demand strongly,” Theerathat explained. “In addition, most developers are focusing on residential projects, although not many operate retail space.”
The are already two major retail projects in Sri Racha, Robinson Department Store, which serves mostly locals, and Saha Group’s J-Park, which was developed to serve people in the area, along with the recently opened community mall by Aeon Thailand. However, Property Perfect believes they can differentiate themselves from the current retail options in the region.
“There’s room for us to do a different project,” said Theerathat. “We’ll develop a bigger community mall to provide a complete range of goods and services.”
The shopping mall will have four-levels shopping and there will also be three residential towers of 30, 24 and five stories in addition to the retail space. The developer hopes for construction to be completed sometime in 2019.
This is Property Perfect’s second retail development after Metro West Town, another community mall that opened towards the end of 2014. Property Perfect may also look to build more retail projects in the future according to the newspaper.
“We’re in talks with strategic partners who have the experience, networks and connections in the retail business to participate in our five future projects in which we will invest more than THB10 billion combined ourselves,” Theerathat concluded.
