Poon Phol plans 'Rangsit City'

Pimpaka, who is also chief executive officer of Rangsit Plaza Co, owner and operator of Future Park Rangsit shopping centre, said that of the 600 rai Poon Phol Group owned in Rangsit, 200 rai were used for Future Park, Major Cineplex, Tesco Lotus Rangsit, apartments and a traditional market at Rangsit Junction. 

The other 400 rai will be developed for a commercial complex, including office buildings, a hotel, and residential projects. It will take more than 10 years for complete the Rangsit City project. 

The group also plans to invest up to Bt3 billion to develop shopping centres in the Northeast of Thailand five years from now, she added.

A four-star hotel will be the group’s next project, to be launched next year. The Bt500-million project will be close to Future Park Rangsit. It will have 200 rooms to serve tourists who visit Greater Bangkok’s northern area. 

“The hotel is applying for an environmental impact assessment permit. When the group gets the permit, construction will begin, possibly in the middle of next year,” Pimpaka said. 

The investment budget will come from the group’s internal cash flow, bank loans, and funds raised from the capital market, she said. 

Rangsit Plaza Co has spent Bt4 billion to renovate Future Park Rangsit since last year, increasing lettable retail space from 150,000 square metres to 220,000sqm of the shopping centre’s total area of 600,000sqm.

The renovation concept, “Never Regular”, targets increasing the number of visitors to Future Park Rangsit from 150,000 per day to 200,000. 

This should increase revenue by 30 per cent from this year’s Bt2 billion to Bt2.6 billion in 2016, she said.

At present, 95 per cent of the new retail space has been booked, so when this is combined with its existing retail space, Future Park Rangsit has an occupancy rate of about 98 per cent. Poon Phol Grop is also negotiating with Swedish furniture retailer Ikea for development of a store of about 50,000sqm near Future Park Rangsit, Pimpaka said. 

She added that Rangsit Plaza Co also planned to develop shopping centres in the provinces, focusing on the Northeast.

 

Wooing neighbouring countries

“We [want to attract] shoppers from neighbouring countries, especially Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, and hence we will develop shopping centres with combined retail space of more than 100,000 square metres within five years,” Pimpaka said.

Such projects will be developed on its own land, as it has plots in Chaiyaphum, Buri Ram, Nakhon Ratchasima and Udon Thani. 

The Wanglee family is descended from a Chinese tycoon who established a business in Thailand during the reign of King Rama IV. Poon Phol Group was established more than 60 years ago as a consortium of Thai corporations. The group was originally involved in trading |agricultural products, and expanded into food processing, and then property management and development. 

At present, the group has eight subsidiaries. They are Pipatanasin Co, which is in the business of property management and development; Poonpipat Co, which manages warehouse spaces and wharves for rent; Rangsit Ruampatana Co, owner and operator of Rangsit Fresh Market and Rangsit Apartments I & II; Rangsit Plaza Co, owner and operator of Future Park Rangsit; Sitthinan Co, a producer of green mung bean starch and vermicelli; Thanakorn Vegetable Oil Products Co; Siam Quality Starch Co, a producer |of native and modified tapioca starch; and Siam Modified Starch Co, a producer of modified tapioca starch.