Chiang Mai Business Park (CBP) a live-work-play ecosystem in a budding city spot

CHIANG MAI BUSINESS PARK WHAT & WHERE IS IT ?

Not wishing to get overly technical about the whole thing, but the CBP’s more than just a business park. Unlike the Airport Business Park on the opposite side of town, the Chiang Mai Business Park has long been home to a mix of both commercial and residential spaces.

Taking up a little under half a square kilometre of terrain on the northeastern limits of the city, the main approaches to the CBP lie off the Super Highway and the Chiang Mai-Doi Saket Road though the Business Park’s scarcely any less accessible from the Middle Ring Road behind.

WHAT’S THE BACKSTORY TO THE CHIANG MAI BUSINESS PARK?

To all intents and purposes, the Chiang Mai Business Park started life back in December 2000 with the opening of the Lanna [Northern Thai] cultural attraction, Khum Khantoke. Ultimately, the plan for the CBP was to create the largest business hub in the region.

As part of the V Group portfolio, the CBP was the brainchild of Chiang Mai-born real estate mogul and Republic of Korea Honorary Consul, Dr. Wachara Tantranont. And, yes, the very same Thai family also owns Rimping Supermarkets and Groceries not to mention operating every single 7-Eleven in Chiang Mai. Sure enough then, investors far and wide wasted no time in jumping on the CBP bandwagon!

WHAT DOES THE CHIANG MAI BUSINESS PARK OF TODAY HAVE TO OFFER?

As it happens, the Chiang Mai Business Park has many of the hallmarks of an urban village especially the fact that all corners of the CBP can be comfortably reached on two legs. Compared to elsewhere in Chiang Mai, the CBP is startlingly pedestrian-friendly with fit-for-use pavements [sidewalks], short blocks, an orderly street layout and decent signage! Besides which, the infrastructure is good with up-to-date utilities, smoothly paved and not so narrow roads, tons of parking, beautified with landscaped trees and flower beds topped off with a refreshingly sleepy vibe!

All told, the Chiang Mai Business Park’s made up of more than 200 individual land plots and some are actually still up for grabs. Not counting the coach loads of Chinese tourists that descend on the still going strong Khum Khantoke for its traditional Northern Thai dinner and show, the biggest crowd puller in the CBP is the Big C Extra complex; having bought out the French hypermarket, Carrefour many moons ago, it’s hardly surprising really seeing as it houses the most sizeable and cheap-as-chips supermarket in the whole of Chiang Mai, a night market, Thai bank branches, a cosmopolitan flavour of eateries and a food court. Among the other retail big hitters in the CBP are Index Living Mall and the popular HomePro. To say nothing of Chiang Mai’s go-to dry cleaning service, Perfect Dry Cleaning, medical and dental facilities, fitness studios, a glut of coffee shops (including the 24-hour Wake Up and StartUp cafés), 7-Elevens, Asian restaurants, and even the odd roadside food vendor!

As a place to put down roots for a spell, there are no fewer than 16 condominiums inside the Chiang Mai Business Park which are fully habitable at this very moment:

• Boat condo
• Hillside Payap 7, 8 and 9
• Jigsaw 1 and 2
• My Hip
• My Hip 2, 3 and 4
• One+ Business Park 1, 2 and 3
• The Treasure (buildings A and B)
• Vision Chiang Mai

Despite the CBP featuring its own home office and shop front premises in the form of a trio of Green Plus community malls, unfortunately, many such units stand empty because rental rates are astronomical.

Although it was conceived as a one-stop development, the CBP isn’t exactly the centre of the Chiang Mai Universe. Yet a mere 15/20 minute walk (or the briefest of drives) from the Business Park and you’ll run into the largest shopping mall in Northern Thailand, CentralFestival, Chiang Mai’s Provincial Arcade transport station, Payap University’s main Mae Khao campus, Sam Yaek day market, StarWork co-working space, Bangkok “International” Hospital as well as a branch of the Cash & Carry supremo, Makro. And it may enjoy an air of splendid isolation, but the CBP’s ringed on three sides by major highways so connecting to Chiang Mai’s inner city or locations further afield is a cinch!

WHAT’S IN THE PIPELINE FOR THE CHIANG MAI BUSINESS PARK?

For starters, the latest condo project in the CBP, One+ Business Park 4, is already taking shape while buildings C and D of The Treasure are set to be done and dusted in the next few months. Not so lucky, the Chiang Mai Business Park’s long-anticipated Platinum Fashion and IT Mall never did come off; instead, the multi-storey construction mutated into a wholesale distribution centre, the Thai-China International Trade Centre (TCITC)…except that too is now two years overdue to open to the public! With the land bagged in the summer of 2017, the U.S. Consulate’s new compound is slated to go into the Chiang Mai Business Park at some point. And for as long as the CBP’s German Microbrewery has shut up shop, there’s been talk of its resurrection so another one to await with bated breath!

As to what’s happening right on the CBP doorstep, well, the area around CentralFestival has become the hottest playground in Chiang Mai property developers and is even being touted the city’s new Central Business District. So, all in all, the Chiang Mai Business Park’s future looks assured!

Whether you are or were a resident there or simply a regular visitor, what do you feel are the good, the bad, and the ugly of the Chiang Mai Business Park? How do you think the CBP could be bettered? We’d be overjoyed to get your input so please do leave us a comment below!