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"We had forecast the construction budget of UD Town at Bt800 million to Bt900 million. After the prices of oil and steel dropped 20 per cent from the first half, plus the redesign, the budget was revised to only Bt300 million," managing director Worapol Weerachatyanukul said yesterday.

Construction of UD Mall will start this month, and commercial operations will commence next October.

Udon Plaza has also hired architecture and interior-design firm Contour to go back to the drawing board and change UD Town from a closed to an outdoor shopping mall. This means UD Town can do without many big air-conditioners.

Udon Plaza has leased about 25 rai of land from the State Railway of Thailand for 34 years to develop the community mall and a hotel over two phases. The first will see 14 rai of land used for UD Town and the rest for UD Bazaar, a shopping street adjacent to UD Town. UD Bazaar will open next month.

The second phase will replace UD Bazaar with a hotel, with construction kicking off in 2011.

Many popular food and fashion brands plan to open outlets in UD Town, such as Burger King, Swensen's, Dairy Queen, Levi's and G2. The company is also approaching Central Food Retail to run its restaurant chains in the mall.

"UD Town expects revenue in 2010 - its first full year of operations - of Bt240 million, or Bt20 million monthly," Worapol added.