We’ve got one more month of low season, give or take, and business seems to be holding up fairly well by most accounts. Some are doing better than others but as we reported last month it’s nowhere near the disaster that last year was. On that positive note let’s look at some of the recent newsworthy happenings in the area starting with the re-opening of Chuwit Park located between sois 8 and 10.
Closed for about 13 months for reasons unknown, it is now open for business much to the delight of local residents. The closest green space during the park’s closure was Queen Sirikit Park which is a bit of a hike from Chuwit Park so it’s now a lot easier to get in a bit of exercise or just relaxation again. We still think that at some point it will be sold because of the immense value of land in the immediate vicinity but no word on that front at the moment so we’ll enjoy it while we can.
There’s also no word about, or any activity at, the Soi 11 site that’s supposed to be developed, the former home of many businesses including Cheap Charlies. The site was vacated on March 31 of this year and four months later nothing has happened. The family that owned the property is still operating their restaurant at one end of the property but that’s it. You’d think that considering all of the money that was paid for this one-rai piece of land that the new owners would be moving as quickly as possible to recoup their investment.
As it gets closer to 2018 it seems as if the long-standing rumor about a new development close to the entrance to the soi is actually going to turn out to be true. There’s a big chunk of land that will supposedly be turned into some sort of development – probably condos is our bet – and that it will start to happen in February or so of next year. Several existing businesses will be closed and the construction will go on for a couple of years or so creating a Soi 11 atmosphere due to cement trucks but it will be interesting to see what results.
The construction of the supposed spa on the corner of Soi 6 across from the Sukhumvit Grand Hotel is dragging on with no end apparently in sight after many months. The six-storey structure is still shrouded in the ubiquitous green construction fabric you see all over Sukhumvit so it’s impossible to tell exactly what’s going in there. Construction is also dragging on at the Hyde Sukumvit site on the corner of Soi 13. The front building of this project was meant to be finished years ago but progress has been glacial. A five-star hotel and retail spaces are supposed to open there but there’s no telling when it will actually happen.
