Bangkok: Central World Shopping Mall Destroyed By Fire

[otherstuff1957]

Here's what CWP looked like a couple of months ago:

Please pardon the quality... I took these pics with my cell phone

Here's the south side:

Here's the east side:

Here's a shot of the front:

Here is the same spot a few weeks earlier:

Across the street from CWP is the Police Hospital:

Here is the same location a few weeks earlier:

[hughben]

I just read on a news report Zen will take 14 months and CW 6 months to rebuild.

So going off Thai building completion estimates - it should be open in 2013.

[tw25rw]

It's all wrapped up and hard to get a good view of now. What I did notice is what looked like bullet holes in the glass panels on the footbridge

[ronz28]

Here is one of the malls claiming to be the biggest in the world...twice as big as the Mall of the Americas.

But its almost empty...no customers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emzKAa9rKgU

Edited August 4, 2010 by ronz28

[Buchholz]

Probe into burned mall, cinema to be completed this week

BANGKOK, Aug 15 (MCOT) - Investigations into the burning of CentralWorld, Thailand's largest shopping mall, and a nearby cinema, by anti-government protesters of the United Front for Democracy against Dictatopship (UDD) in May are expected to be wrapped up this week, according to Tharit Pengdit, chief of the Department of Special Investigation (DSI).

Mr Tharit said DSI is now in the process of concluding investigations on terrorism conducted by the 'Red Shirt' movement of the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD), and that he expects the probe into the burning of CentralWorld and the Siam Theatre could be completed within this week.

The shopping mall and the cinema were among 39 places burned in Bangkok at the end of the Red Shirt protest ended, following the surrender of the protest leaders on May 19.

http://www.mcot.net/cfcustom/cache_page/90367.html

[metroman]

Covards. Proves they are terrorist.

Used to symphatize with the red movements but all that is now gone.

I sincerely hope that all foreigners and thais take all this in consideration and do NOT vote for the reds in next election. That would be a clear signal.

Foreigners cannot vote. All we can do is sit back and bitch.

Quite a lot of foreigners do have full citizenship but what I really meant was for foreigners to dissaprove of the red movement in any way.

By foreigner do you mean farang? I have never met a farang that was granted Thai citizenship. I am aware of a few Burmese but no farang. You learn something new every day.

[Buchholz]

Restored Central World to Partially Reopen Next Month

UPDATE : 17 August 2010

Central World is set to reopen its shopping complex around the end of next month after it was severely damaged by an arson fire during the May red-shirt riots.

Managing director of Central Pattana Public Company Limited, Kobchai Jirathiwat, said the shopping zones within the compound of Central World are scheduled to reopen around the end of September, while full operation has been set for the beginning of November.

Korbchai said his company has instructed all of its branches to keep prices of beverages sold in its commercial space at an appropriate level and arrange zones for discount products to ease consumers' burden.

The company pledged to follow the Commerce Ministry's requirement that the prices of 500- to 600-cc bottled water must not exceed seven baht each while the 1.5-liter bottle must not surpass 14 baht.

Korbchai also remarked his firm has scheduled the opening of its new branch in Surat Thani in April 2012. The newest Central Plaza costs three billion baht in investment and stands on a 62-rai plot of land.

He said Surat Thani's Central Plaza will be the largest shopping complex in the South and projected the new branch will attract 2.8 million people from Surat Thani and nearby provinces. It is also expected to attract 1.5 million Thai and foreign tourists each year.

http://www.thailandoutlook.tv/tan/ViewData.aspx?DataID=1033569