It's business as usual for the developer of 'Super Tower'

The company plans the new “Super Tower”, which will dwarf the rest of Bangkok’s skyline in 2019 and also surge past Kuala Lumpur’s Petronas Towers, now the tallest in Southeast Asia. The plan was announced last month, at a time when the Kingdom is trying to regain its footing after the May 22 military coup.

Cheerleaders in Asean’s second-largest economy will no doubt cite the Super Tower as another example of its good prospects, despite the Finance Ministry’s projections of just 1.4 per cent growth this year and 4.1 per cent next year.

Sitting upright, his black jacket resting over a crisp white shirt, Yotin gives off the air of an old-school tycoon who steadily grew his empire by keeping a close watch on the bottom line.

His grandparents left the Chaozhou region in southern China to start a small business in Yaowarat district. At 13, Yotin was sent to Hong Kong where he studied civil engineering at the institute now known as Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

In the 1990s, he teamed up with Thai partners and the Chinese government to develop Shanghai’s Pudong area, and later extended his interests to Shenzhen and Chengdu.

He also helped develop a hotel and retail project with a mall called Fortune Town in Bangkok’s Ratchadapisek Road. These days, it is better known for its shops selling electronics or computer-related paraphernalia.

The father of three, who lives in a “little” 30-year-old house on a 400 square metre plot in northern Bangkok, said the cash flow from his other projects is enough to fund 40 to 60 per cent of the Bt18 billion Super Tower. The rest will be financed through a bank loan.

The skyscraper, also in Ratchadapisek Road, forms the centrepiece of a condominium, office and retail development spread out over 73 rai of land that he picked up cheaply after the 1997 financial crisis.

Despite being poised to leave what can be considered the most dramatic imprint on Bangkok’s skyline, Yotin appeared reluctant to give his take on the aesthetics of its sprawling towers.

“High-rise is high-rise, they all look the same to me.”

In the next few years, his Ratchadapisek cluster of developments will include the future headquarters of Unilever, the global personal care product giant, as well as a 36-storey office block shaped dramatically like the letter G.

“The G tower looks like a dragon’s head,” he said, pointing at its scale model on a table. “The most prosperous part of this area will be the dragon’s head.”

Declaring he is not superstitious, he said: “It’s just a coincidence the tower looks like a dragon’s head. All I told the designer was to make it unique.”