A month after announcing a 10-billion-baht megamall project in the Bang Na-Trat area, Siam Future Development Plc is already seeking a site for another major mall, which will feature the Swedish furniture retailer Ikea as its key anchor.
”We definitely are now looking for the second site although it is may be a few years away,” chairman Oranop Jantaraprapa said at the extraordinary shareholders’ meeting to approve a capital increase and bond issue to finance the first development. The Swedish furniture chain has said it wants to build at least two more malls in Thailand over the next 10 years, each at a cost of about 4 billion baht.
”Ikea has said that it may look at the second mall in five years but I think it may be earlier than that,” he said.
Nearly 70% of the Bang Na-Trat mall’s 200,000 square metres of retail space is on the verge of being booked by big retailers such as hypermarkets and DIY stores, said Oranop. Siam Future is currently leasing about 240,000 sq m of retail space across its other properties.
”We expect our revenue to rise by at least 80% once the project is operational,” said CEO Nopporn Witoonchart.
