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THAI LIFESTYLE CENTER TRUE TO FORMAT

By Brannon Boswell

Lifestyle centers may have been born in the U.S.A., but developers around the world are replicating the concept at a fast pace, especially in dense urban markets where wealthy consumers are no longer eager to fight traffic and congestion to go to regional malls.

The four-level, 88,000-square-foot J Avenue, which bills itself as the first lifestyle center in Thailand, made quite a stir when it opened in Bangkok’s upscale Thong Lo residential district in 2004. A story in The New York Times titled “To Be Young and Hip in Bangkok” dubbed the project’s Au Bon Pain restaurant “the epicenter of creativity in Bangkok.” Since then, the neighborhood has been transformed from a quiet bedroom community favored by a Japanese expatriate population into a hip district of nightclubs, galleries and, yes, similarly designed lifestyle centers.

J Avenue itself has a distinctly Japanese flavor, reflected in everything from its modern architecture to its Japanese-friendly tenant mix. Anchor Villa Market is an expensive grocery chain selling high-priced food imported from Japan and the U.S. in a 21,528-square-foot store. Japan’s leading restaurant chain, Ootoya, also operates a unit at J Avenue. Another anchor is Major Bowl Hit, a popular karaoke-bowling concept that draws mostly families. The center also includes an exhibition space, a children’s music academy, a spa, a pet store, a travel agency, French beauty brand L’Occitane, one of the few Apple stores in Thailand and the hip Greyhound Café.

As with many U.S. lifestyle centers, traffic management was a key issue at J Avenue. To ease congestion, the center has two parking areas: the drop-off and temporary parking zone in front and a sloping deck within the building.

One of the feature attractions is the canopy of giant rain trees that twist and turn overhead, providing shade. “The big, old rain trees could have been cut down to maximize space, but such trees are almost impossible to find in the heart of Bangkok,” said Sangsom Tangthamsatid, a business development officer at Thailand’s largest retail landlord Siam Future Development, which built and owns the center.

And though Thailand’s frequent tropical rainstorms often leave the outdoor café areas a mess, the firm never considered anything but an open-air format, she says. “J Avenue relies on nature as its main attraction, and by covering up the space with an artificial roof, the charm of nature would be taken away,” she said.

The center is 100 percent leased and firmly entrenched as the place for locals to hang out, shop and live their lives.