C.P. Land Plc, the property arm of Charoen Pokphand Group, plans to speed up development of C.P. Industrial Estate Rayong and complete the project by 2019 after receiving strong interest from Chinese investors.
Sunthorn Arunanondchai, president and chief executive of C.P. Land, said the development plan of the industrial estate in Rayong will be completed in two years instead of three after Chinese investors showed overwhelming interest in the project.
"After our project was approved by the Industrial Estate Authority of Thailand last month, a lot of Chinese investors became very eager to invest," he said. "We are doing an environmental impact assessment report and expect to start construction of phase one within the first quarter next year."
C.P. Industrial Estate Rayong will be located on a plot sized 3,068 rai covering three subdistricts: Map Kha and Nikhom Phattana in Nikhom Phattana district and Nong Lalok in Ban Khai district.
The master plan outlines an industrial estate area of 2,244.75 rai, which will account for 73%, a commercial and residential area of 112.5 rai (2%), utilities spanning 401.8 rai (13%) and a green area and buffer zone of 309.24 rai (10%).
With a combined investment of 10 billion baht, the project will be a joint venture between C.P. Land and Guangxi Construction Engineering Group, one of China's largest construction firms, which introduced the project to Chinese industrial investors.
"We will select investors in line with the four target industries we are interested in: smart electronics, medical hub, digital and robotics," Mr Sunthorn said.
Late last year, C.P. Land and a Chinese partner set up a joint venture firm, CG Corporation Co, with registered capital of 2 billion baht. C.P. Land holds 50%, the Chinese partner 48% and a Thai contractor 2%.
"The key selling points of our project are Chinese communications, proximity to key infrastructure projects and modern facilities," Mr Sunthorn said.
In other projects, C.P. Land will spend 1.3 billion baht during 2018-19 to develop two office towers with a combined lettable area of 31,500 square metres for completion in the third quarter of 2019.
One of them will be a 20-storey Grade A building in North Park, Bangkok's Lak Si district, with an expenditure of 1.2 billion baht, a lettable area of 25,500 sq m and a rental rate of about 800 baht per sq m per month.
The other will be in Hat Yai district of Songkhla province, a six-storey tower with a lettable area of 6,000 sq m. It will be the company's second office building in the province; the first is fully occupied, mainly by Aeon call centres.
C.P. Land has nine office buildings worth a combined 1 billion baht across seven provinces that generated 400 million baht in revenue last year. After completion of the two new office projects by 2019, revenue from office space for rent will jump by 30% from last year.
This year, C.P. Land will launch four residential projects in four provinces worth a combined 1.2 billion baht. They will comprise three condo sites with units priced from 1.3 million baht in Prachin Buri, Rayong and Buri Ram, and a townhouse project in Sri Racha, Chon Buri.
