Central Park Bangkok Draws 25 million Visitors in First Year

 

Central Pattana reports nearly full occupancy and 10 million international visits at its Silom mixed-use project, targeting 10% growth.

 

Central Pattana Plc, Thailand's largest property developer, has marked the first anniversary of Central Park, its mixed-use retail and lifestyle project in Silom, reporting 25 million visits since opening — including more than 10 million from overseas tourists — alongside a retail occupancy rate of 98%.

 

The figures were disclosed on Friday by Kunayudh Dej-udom, Asset Director for Central World and Central Park at Central Pattana, at a press briefing to mark the milestone.

 

He said the project had established itself among the top three to five performers across the company's retail portfolio by footfall, behind Central World, which he described as remaining the group's flagship "because of its sheer scale".

 

Daily traffic at the site currently runs between 65,000 and 75,000 visits, according to the company. Central Pattana said the shopping centre's performance reflected the strength of the wider Dusit Central Park development, a mixed-use scheme combining retail, office space, a hotel and residences on the former site of the Dusit Thani Hotel, opposite Lumpini Park.

 

 

Three strategies behind the numbers

Central Pattana attributed the project's first-year performance to three strategies: curating exclusive brands and formats not available elsewhere in Thailand; positioning the site as a cultural and community space rather than a purely transactional one; and a design approach intended to reflect Bangkok's identity rather than imitate other global cities.
 

 

 

On the retail side, the company said more than 250 Thai and international brands operate at Central Park, with a number of "first-in-Thailand" openings, including Blue Bottle Coffee's debut store in the country and a new duplex-format Zara store — described as the Spanish retailer's first new store format in more than a decade.

 

Other openings cited include an Onitsuka Tiger collaboration with Japanese chef Norimaki and Parkside Market, an F&B zone the company says houses the country's largest concentration of Michelin Guide-listed restaurants under one roof.

 

 

On the cultural front, the company pointed to recurring programming — described internally as a "People-led Cultural Stage" — including a reworking of the Silom Songkran festival and a campaign with French artist Monsieur Poppi depicting 24 characters intended to represent the diversity of the neighbourhood's visitors.

 

For the anniversary itself, Central Park has launched a collaboration with the artist Alan Hong, alongside a loyalty scheme allowing shoppers to redeem accumulated spending points for merchandise.

 

Two rooftop dining venues at the development, THER and THE NORM, were ranked first and second, respectively, among Bangkok destinations by Time Out, the company said, while THE NORM has also been named a finalist in the World Architecture Festival's Best Restaurant category, with winners due in November.

 

 

Wider development shows mixed pace

Central Park sits within a larger mixed-use complex, and Central Pattana used the anniversary to report on the other components. Office space at Central Park has reached occupancy of more than 80%, with tenants including Deutsche Bank, adidas, Bayer, GSK, Mitsubishi Corporation and the Netherlands Embassy.

 

 

 

The company said the office tower's contribution to daily footfall would grow further next year as more tenants complete fit-outs and staff relocate in full.

 

The adjoining Dusit Thani Bangkok hotel received a Michelin Key rating in its first year, while the residential component, The Residences at Dusit Central Park, is around 96–97% sold, with buyers due to begin moving in during the fourth quarter of this year.

 

Not every element of the project is running to the original timetable, however. A planned underground connection linking Central Park directly to the MRT subway system, initially targeted for completion this year, has slipped to the first or second quarter of next year. Kunayudh said the delay reflected efforts to meet safety and engineering standards, rather than any wider setback.

 

 

Targeting 30 million visits next year

Looking ahead, Central Pattana said it was targeting overall traffic growth of around 10% for Central Park in its second year, which would take total visits from 25 million to roughly 30 million and international visitor numbers from 10 million to about 12.5 million.

 

The company frames this ambition around three "global" themes: continuing to bring exclusive international brands and formats to the site, deepening its role as a cultural and music venue, and expanding its base of international visitors.

 

 

Asked about the mix of nationalities visiting the site, Kunayudh said the largest overseas visitor groups were from China, Malaysia, Japan and Taiwan, with a smaller but notable presence of visitors from the Middle East and countries such as the Netherlands.

 

He rejected the suggestion that courting international tourists risked diluting the experience for domestic shoppers, arguing that visitors — whether Thai or foreign — who share interests in fashion, design or the arts tend to congregate around the same spaces regardless of nationality.

 

On broader economic pressures, including global conflicts, slower growth and the possibility of tighter visa policies in some markets, Kunayudh said such factors inevitably affected Thailand's tourism sector but argued that central Bangkok, and Central Park specifically, had so far proved comparatively resilient, citing continued growth in both traffic and density of visitors.

 

 

A different proposition to Central World

Asked to distinguish Central Park from Central World, CPN's larger and longer-established mall a few kilometres away, Kunayudh described the newer site as a more tightly curated "lifestyle destination" aimed at design-conscious, active consumers — people who might exercise in the adjoining Roof Park, meet friends for a juice, and later visit a rooftop bar — rather than the broad, everything-under-one-roof positioning of Central World.

 

Because the mall is already close to full occupancy, Central Pattana said it did not plan wholesale changes to its tenant line-up each year. Instead, dedicated pop-up and event spaces will rotate on a roughly three-monthly cycle to keep the retail offer current, the company said.

 

 

The Roof Park itself — a 7-rai (roughly 1.1-hectare) publicly accessible green space sitting atop the retail podium opposite Lumpini Park — remains central to the project's pitch.

 

Kunayudh said the design was intended to offer members of the public a panoramic view of the park that would ordinarily only be available to hotel guests or office workers in high-rise buildings nearby.

 

Central Pattana confirmed that Central Park will run anniversary promotions through September and October, including cashback offers for holders of its co-branded credit card and a spending-based e-voucher scheme.

 

The project has also picked up a series of industry awards over the past year, including New Mall of the Year at the Retail Asia Awards, a Product & Service Excellence award at the Thailand Corporate Excellence Awards, and Project of the Year at the Dot Property Southeast Asia Awards, alongside a consumer-voted Grab ThumbsUp Award.