Sansiri unveils “Habito” – Bangkok’s newest feel-good community retail project where customers can delight in “The Good Life” from morning all the way until night

Sansiri has once again blazed a new trail by expanding its business portfolios to venture into the community retail business with the unveiling of “Habito: The Heart of Good Living” new-concept community retail project. The latest new business venture by Sansiri is anticipated to contribute to even better quality of life for people living in the expansive network of trendy residential and retail developments on Sukhumvit 77 road, the bustling neighbourhood now known as “T77” area. This exciting new project is co-created between “Sansiri” and “Winkreative”, a world-renowned creative agency, and together, they expect to build a groundbreaking community retail project dedicated to offering “feel-good lifestyle from morning until night” to everyone.

Mr. Apichart Chutrakul, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Executive Board, Sansiri Plc., stated that, “After our great success in branching out to the hotel business last year, we are pleased to announce that Sansiri is now ready to venture into another exciting business – the community retail business.  We believe that this new area of business we are entering in can go a long way in supporting our core property development business. We have allocated an investment budget of 320 Million Baht to establish this business and we anticipate to generate approximately 40 Million Baht in revenue per year from the rental of commercial spaces in our community retail project at the rate of 750 – 1,500 Baht per sq.m. In this initial stage, such revenue may account for only 0.15% of our total revenue, but the true merits of this business lie in something more important – it allows us to offer ‘from morning until night a feel-good lifestyle’ to our Sansiri Family members in the burgeoning prime residential area of Sukhumvit 77. It will also contribute greatly to increasing the value of our future developments as well as the value of the land nearby.”

“We believe that, like in many major cities around the world, key residential areas in Bangkok will develop into small self-contained towns (cluster or district) within a big metropolis. Each area may have distinctive characteristics of its own, such as major neighbourhoods like Silom, Ramkhamhaeng, Ladphrao, Pinklao and On-nuch. Major developments will no longer be clustered in inner downtown areas such as Ploenchit or Pathumwan like they used to be in the past. Instead, they will continue to expand to other communities throughout Bangkok and beyond, especially areas along the routes of mass transit systems. So, it is important for home-seekers to note that, when they choose a home, they are also choosing the lifestyle they want to live in.”

“Sukhumvit 77 in recent years has emerged as one of Bangkok’s highly desirable residential neighbourhoods with a high growth potential, with easy links to other parts of the city via Sukhumvit Road, BTS Skytrain and Expressways. This location, at the same time, offers peaceful serenity from nearby natural waterways and green areas, making the area all the more appealing to many new-generation home-seekers. This is evident in the fact that the combined sales of Sansiri projects in this area have now reached 6,800 Million Baht. Such projects include ‘Blocs Sukhumvit 77’, ‘THE BASE Sukhumvit 77’, ‘THE BASE Park East Sukhumvit 77’, ‘THE BASE Park West Sukhumvit 77’ and ‘Garden Square Sukhumvit 77’, which is an upscale townhouse development with prices starting at 10 Million Baht. Also in this popular neighbourhood, we launched another low-rise 7-storey condominium project called ‘hasu HAUS’ in the mid of October 2014. With all of these projects combined, the total value of all Sansiri properties in this area will rise to 8,700 Million Baht, with the capacity to serve as many as 5,000 families.”

Mr. Apichart further noted that, “We believe that ‘Sukhumvit 77’ locations that are close to BTS Skytrain stations will continue to rise in both value and popularity, and, together, they will eventually develop into a major new preferred residential area in Bangkok in foreseeable future. Seeing this potential, Sansiri has decided to contribute to such growth by helping to develop this area into Bangkok’s newest hip lifestyle community and has given it a trendy name of ‘T77’. We will continue to develop more projects in this fast-growing area and offer unique lifestyle options that appeal to both Thais and foreigners who appreciate superior living in the Sansiri style.”

Mr. Uthai Uthaisangsuk, Senior Executive Vice President of Business Development & Project Development Division (High Rise), Sansiri Plc., revealed that, “Sansiri has collaborated with Winkreative, the international branding and design agency that is the sister company to Monocle magazine, the global media brand. Winkreative developed the unique concept for ‘Habito’, the community retail project. ‘Habito’ aspires to become a community retail project that is uniquely different, catering to the real needs and demands of its target consumers. We spent over two years in marketing research and analysing our competitors and business opportunities. We also travelled to Japan to visit over 10 leading community retail projects in Tokyo. And, here we are, ready to introduce ‘Habito: The Heart of Good Living’, Bangkok’s new feel-good community retail project where customers will delight in the good life from morning all the way until night.”

“The partnership with a world-class creative agency like Winkreative empowers us with the creative prowess that will help ensure that ‘Habito’ will be a community mall like no other – a true phenomenon in Thailand’s retail industry. We are also very selective in recruiting the right business partners to have their stores open at ‘Habito’, to ensure the ‘good quality of life’ we promise our customers.”

“In addition, a large share of the commercial spaces at ‘Habito’ will be occupied by co-working spaces, giving this community a distinctive vibe of professionalism, enthusiasm and creativity that will differentiate it from other community retail projects. This will help attract high-potential customers to ‘Habito’ all day long and not only during lunchtime or after work, contributing to the main concept of ‘Habito’ in offering ‘feel-good lifestyle from morning until night’ to everyone.”, added Mr. Uthai. “Habito” will be a 10,000-sq.m. community retail project located on a prime 4-rai land plot of T77, comprising a total of 32 stores with sizes ranging from 35 to 700 sq.m. The commercial spaces have been designed to be suitable for a wide range of businesses from restaurants to café, beauty salons, drugstores, as well as, co-working spaces.”

“One very strong point about ‘Habito’ is that it is open from morning all the way until night, offering many hours of convenience and leisure to customers every day. This is a place where you will always find something for everyone, and we want it to become a vibrant new community amidst the hustle and bustle of a big metropolitan like Bangkok.”, concluded Mr. Uthai.The construction of “Habito” is scheduled to commence in September 2014 and the official opening is planned to take place in November 2015.

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About Winkreative

Winkreative is an award-winning creative agency producing design, branding and publishing work for a roster of international clients. CEO and Chairman of Winkreative, Tyler Brûlé, is also Editor-in-Chief of Monocle magazine, the global media brand. Winkreative is headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, and operates its creative studio in London with a successful branding and marketing campaigns for many internationally renowned brands including TAG Heuer, Hermes, Louis Vuitton, BlackBerry, Swiss International Airlines, British Airways and American Express.