Pantip Plaza, Bangkok's most famous electronics mall, will completely open its doors to customers early next month after embarking on a massive two-year, 300-million-baht renovation.
Dubbed the Tech Life Mall, the renovation is intended to demonstrate the transformative power of the emerging Internet of Things.
Asset World Estate, the operator of Pantip Plaza, announced it will open its new Tech Life Mall on Aug 8.
"The renovated mall will provide a variety of revolutionised electronic products in order to serve the rapid transformation for consumers moving to a digital lifestyle," said Sansern Na Patthalung, asset manager of Asset World Estate, which is under the umbrella of TCC Land.
The 36,000-square-metre mall will boast 300 IT dealers occupying half of the total space. The remaining display space has been reserved for gadgets, gaming, a co-working space for startup companies, enterprise solution products and restaurants.
Mr Sansern said the new Pantip will for the first time provide what it called a Syn Hub, featuring a co-working space for tech startups, an e-sports area powered by Intel Microelectronics (Thailand), business solutions supplied by Com Seven Co, and a Microsoft experience store.
"We expect our renovated mall to attract more teenagers, and not just hardcore computer consumers like previously," he said.
"We expect the average time our customers spends in our mall to increase from 1.5 hours to 3.5 hours."
The company expects the number of visitors to increase to 35,000 per day after that number dropped to 20,000 during the renovation period and a general slowdown of shopping malls for computers.
"We expect our renovated project to break even within five years," he said, adding that the company has raised its rental fee by an additional 3-5%.
Mr Sansern said Pantip also hopes to become a mall without pirated software.
Niti Mekmok, managing director of Synergy Technology, the owner of Syn Hub, said digital technologies are creating new paths for manufactures and reshaping most industries.
The 20-million-baht Syn Hub provided various innovative technologies ranging from 3D printers, mechanics supporting the Industrial Internet of Things, embedded electronic systems design, and radio frequency identification systems.
Syn Hub also features a co-working space with 60 seats. The company charges 280 baht a day to use the space.
"It's the right time to invest as the Thai government is pushing for the development of a digital economy," said Mr Niti.