APPROACHING TO GHOST TOWER BANGKOK IN THAILAND

3 years ago
40

Sathorn Unique Tower is an unfinished skyscraper in the Thai capital city Bangkok. ... It is now among the most prominent of Bangkok's many derelict buildings, and has become a destination for urban explorers. Construction of the building was started last year 1990. The Sathorn Unique was planned as a 47 storey luxury condominium tower with 600 units. The building was designed and developed by Rangsan Torsuwan, a prominent architect and real estate developer who also designed Sathorn Unique's sister building, the State Tower. The project was launched in 1990 and was owned by Sathorn Unique Co. Ltd. and mainly financed by the Thai Mex Finance and Securities Company. Construction began in that same year with Si Phraya Co. Ltd. being the main contractor in charge. In 1993, in a controversial case that would drag on for fifteen years, Rangsan was arrested for allegedly plotting to murder the President of the Supreme Court, Praman Chansue (the murder never took place). Rangsan was found guilty in 2008 but later acquitted by the Court of Appeals in 2010. The case, however, markedly disrupted Rangsan's ability to secure financial support for his projects, and construction of the Sathorn Unique suffered delays due to lack of funds.When the Asian financial crisis hit in 1997, Bangkok's real estate market collapsed, and the finance companies that had funded the project went bankrupt and were subsequently liquidated. Construction projects across the city came to a halt, and Bangkok was left with over 300 unfinished high-rise projects. Most of these buildings (State Tower among them) have since been completed as the economy recovered, but Sathorn Unique remains among Bangkok's dozen-plus unfinished "ghost towers", despite negotiations and refinancing efforts by Rangsan's son Pansit Torsuwan, who had joined Rangsan's firm in 2004.[2][4][5] This was largely due to Rangsan's insistence that the project only be sold off at a price that would allow the building's original buyers to be repaid in full, instead of declaring bankruptcy and dissolving the company.

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