UD Town ready for competition
By Kwanchai RungfapaisarnThe Nation, Udon Thani
Published on December 6, 2010
Night bazaar to be converted into daytime lifestyle market
Udon Plaza, operator of UD Town Lifestyle Mall in Udon Thani, will convert the UD Bazaar night market into a daytime "lifestyle market" in preparation for more intense competition from CentralPlaza Udon Thani.
The Central venture is undergoing a Bt4-billion renovation and expansion, including the Centara Udon Thani hotel, and will be officially reopened in the first quarter of 2012.
The 13,000-square-metre open-air UD Town Mall houses more than 90 retail tenants, while the 10,000-square-metre UD Bazaar night market has around 200 small tenants. Both are located on a 24-rai plot close to the railway station in the centre of Udon Thani.
Worapol Weerachatyanukul, managing director of Udon Plaza, said UD Bazaar would be converted into a day market to better complement UD Town.
"The move is also in line with our strategy to cope with more intense competition driven by CentralPlaza Udon Thani, which will be relaunched in the near future," he said. Worapol added that the new UD Bazaar lifestyle market would be officially opened on December 18.
Worapol said the company expected rent revenues from UD Town to increase from Bt120 million this year to Bt200 million next year, up 70 per cent year on year.
UD Town attracts 3,000 cars and 4,000 motorcycles a day on weekdays and up to 4,500 cars and 5,000 motorcycles a day at the weekend.
"We also expect our traffic to increase by 50 per cent next year," Worapol said.
Opening in December last year and costing Bt600 million, UD Town is expected to break even within six years.
Orodsa Ritthikan, marketing director of Udon Plaza, said the company set up an 'event marketing' department in August. The new unit provided marketing consultancy, media brokerage and planning and event organisation for the company as well as external clients.
Investors from Laos and other provinces, including Sakon Nakhon and Nakhon Sri Thammarat, had approached the company for management contracts to operate new open-air malls, said Orodsa.
Udon Plaza has a three-year business plan to diversify its portfolio into offices and hotels.
The company's first four-and-a-half-star hotel will open within the next few years on 10-rai about 50 metres from UD Town.
Requiring investment of about Bt100 million, the hotel will consist of two buildings with 80 rooms each.
"We are in the process of adjusting the design for the new hotel, which will serve greater numbers of tourists coming to Udon Thani," said Worapol.
He said about 2.2 million Thai and foreign tourists visited the northeastern city every year.
There are about seven or eight three- and four-star hotels in Udon Thani with more than 3,000 rooms altogether. Their current occupancy rates average between 90 per cent and 100 per cent.
"We also plan to invest Bt30 million to open a new three-floor office building on the existing plot located by UD Town by the end of next year," said Pitak Ponghirancharoen, the company's assistant managing director.
He said the 3,000-square-metre 30-unit office building would serve Udon Plaza itself and its affiliated company TIS Telecom, which is the DTAC distributor for Thailand's upper northeast. The two companies have more than 120 employees altogether. Pitak said the first and second floors of the office building, accounting for 70 per cent of total retail space, would be allocated to retail tenants.
Personally I think both shopping venues will coexist together in harmony. I think Central Plaza has more potential i.e. more parking space and covered air-conditioned space which I think is very important in this climate. UD town on the other hand opens later and has a good nightlife concert venue. The only downside are the limited parking facilities and open air shopping area.
Both places offer something different so I don't think UD town has too much to worry about, especially since Udon is expanding and attracting more visitors.
