Central Pattana (CPN), operator of CentralWorld shopping complex, yesterday said that about one-third of the building had been totally |damaged by the blaze that hit the shopping mall on Wednesday afternoon.
Nattakit Tangpoonsinthana, CPN executive vice president, said that the company conducted an initial inspection of CentralWorld following the fire.
"We found that Zen Department Store was completely destroyed while Zen Tower was partly damaged.
The shopping complex itself is partly damaged, especially at the Atrium Zone near Zen Department Store and at the Food Zones on the fourth and seventh floors.
While Isetan, TK Park, SF World Cinema, the Bangkok Convention Centre and the Centara Grand Hotel have not been affected by the blaze," he said.
Nattakit said that it would take almost a week to conduct a complete inspection of the building's structure, its infrastructure and systems, in coordination with the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA), which will be involved for security reasons.
"What we're trying to do is to close the shopping complex for renovation and re-open sections as soon as possible.
It depends on whether the company can renovate the building from the existing structure and foundation or not," he said.
Nattakit said that he felt regret about the incident.
The blaze started to hit the shopping complex since 1pm on Thursday afternoon.
It was not until 7pm that fire-fighters were able to enter the complex to fight the fires as they were blocked by the demonstrators.
"We all are Thais and we should talk and solve the conflict peacefully. All the anti-government protestors should end the rally immediately as informed by their leaders without making trouble to others. We [CentralWorld] gave the protesters a home to hold their rally. But they turned to destroy us as they were leaving," Nattakit said.
"This mournful thing should not be happening in Thai society... a Buddhist society, where people used to be civil and open-handed. I don't know what has totally changed them that they are able to burn their home country," he said.
An officer at Siam Piwat, which operates Siam Paragon, another shopping mall in the Rajprasong |district burned by the red-shirt |protestors on Wednesday, said that the shopping complex suffered |little damage from the fire, which was immediately extinguished by the operation's guards, who were |standing by at the complex 24 hours a day.
Pratana Mongkolkul, chief financial officer at Minor International, operator of food and fashion branded retail outlets - including The Pizza Company, Swensen's, Sizzler, GAP, Red Earth, and Bloom - located at the CentralWorld complex, said the company so far could not evaluate the damage to its food and retail businesses until the shopping mall delivered a clear schedule and its renovation and rehabilitation plan for the complex, which will be announced at their meeting with all retail tenants today.
She said Minor International operated large-scale shops of The Pizza Company, Swensen's, Sizzler and GAP in an area where damage from the blaze was quite minor. But shops for apparel and cosmetic brands located in the Zen Department Store Zone were completely destroyed by the fire.
"We operate 1,400 shops of food and retail brands nationwide. Hence, the four shops at CentralWorld are quite small if compared to the total number of outlets," she said.
Due to the closure of the shopping complexes, Major Cineplex Group yesterday closed nine branches - at Central Bang Na, Central Rama II, Central Rama III, Central Pinklao, Chiang Mai, Udon Thani, Big C Rajdamri, Seacon Square and Siam Paragon. All other branches nationwide opened as usual, but the closing time was as early as 6pm at some of them. Moviegoers were urged |to check http://www.majorcineplex.com/directline.php for more information.
Major's representative said that the company had not yet evaluated lost revenue from the closure of its theatres in Siam Paragon and the extended curfew period.
Due to Central's closure of several branches, theatres of SF Cinema City at the shopping venues will be closed.
Today it opens five branches in Bangkok but the closing time has been moved up to 6pm.
SF president Suwat Thongrompo added that it was too early to estimate losses from the fire at CentralWorld, which destroyed its theatres.