With acknowledgements to Pattaya Unlimited for a reminder that this subject is ready for an update.
It all started on December 12th 1998 with the launch party for The Beaches; which included Asia’s most technologically advanced water-park to be constructed by WhiteWater West Industries. The scope of the 9 billion baht development to the south of Pattaya was stunning, easily the highest profile development Pattaya had ever seen:
“A 300-room, 5-star condominium resort project will combine the beach cultures of the Mediterranean, North and South America and Thailand in a 30-acre waterscape. Within one venue, it will combine a grand palace as its flagship hotel, two other 5-star international hotels, a boutique hotel with Maldives-inspired water villas, three man-made beaches, three lagoons, Asia’s most technologically advanced water-park, all-adult and family pools, a state-of-the-art fitness centre and tennis academy, a wellness and longevity spa, a hi-tech conference, meeting and convention centre and the kilometre-long Grande Promenade, sporting 20 themed gourmet and casual restaurants, nestling in miles of picturesque, landscaped gardens.”
The developer was Pacific Shore Developments, and their CEO, Mr. Liakat Dhanji who, “when asked about the origin of his finances, said that he is essentially self-funding, though will have some support and sponsorship from HSBC.”
The abundance of funding was reinforced by another local newspaper which stated “This will be a mammoth World Class Destination, employing around 6,000 permanent staff, so Pattaya and the whole Province of Chonburi, has much to gain when such a project comes on line around 2012, and despite what any detractors may think, with such a highly capitalized company group, The Beaches are here to stay.”
(Quotes from Pattaya Daily News and The Pattaya Times).
With typical triviality, Pattaya Days showed no interest in the magnificent scope of this enterprise, and instead decided instead to bitch about a rather lax cartographic approach as reflected the map in the sales brochure. The post signed off with: “The Beaches appears to be an ambitious, quality development. But if they can’t even be honest about the location……” which turned out to be somewhat prophetic when the vice president of the project, George Morgan allegedly absconded with in excess of 100 million baht of investor deposits in June 2009.
Unusually for a local paper, Pattaya Daily News covered this story in some detail, and also asked the CEO, Mr. Liakat Dhanji about the status of the project because, six months on from announcement, nothing appeared to be happening. Mr. Dhanji stated that “rather than starting to build the hotels first, which had been held up at the bureaucratic level due to constant changes in the EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) regulations, the order of construction was going to start with the building of the Water Theme Park, which he assured us is due to start at the end of July or early August 2009”. This was strange, because six months earlier The Pattaya Times reported “Currently, Liakat Dhanji is working with the local authorities and municipalities on The Beaches master plan, and just for the record, this project meets all their EIA and design requirements.”
Presumably the EIA issues remain outstanding, because The Beaches isn’t quite finished yet to the extent that it hasn’t quite started yet. You can get more information on the project from The Beaches website (don’t bother), or from the developer Pacific Shore Developments at their website (don’t bother).
The Beaches was scheduled for completion in Q1 2012.
Just as an aside, you would have thought that the apparent failure of a massive, 9 billion baht project which was launched with huge publicity, would have been subject to some follow-up and comment from the local, or even national, press. But other than the piece by Pattaya Daily News at the time of the deposit theft scandal; nothing.
It all started in July 2010 with the announcement of the Amazon Falls Waterpark, to be built by WhiteWater West Industries on part of The Beaches site. “From the start, we set out to build the best waterpark in Asia,” says Liakat Dhanji, CEO of Amazon Falls Co. Ltd".
The press release stated that “Amazon Falls will open in December 2010”, which seemed rather ambitious what with needing to get EIAs approved etc. and indeed a progress report on Pattaya Days in November 2011 showed completion was a some way off.
For more information on the Amazon Falls Waterpark, visit their website (don’t bother).
It all started in February 2012 with the announcement of the Cartoon Network Amazone Waterpark to be built by WhiteWater West Industries on the Amazon Falls Waterpark site. The developers were Turner Broadcasting System Asia Pacific and Amazon Falls Co. Ltd.
Liakat Dhanji, CEO of Amazon Falls Co. Ltd said: “Thailand has excellent tourism credentials, a vibrant culture with a vast history and also the most welcoming people in the world. The addition of Cartoon Network AMAZONE marks Thailand’s very first internationally branded water theme park.”
In spite of shooting through a fence and a massive rainstorm, you can see from this photo taken today that construction is underway.
For more information on the Cartoon Network Amazone Waterpark, visit their website (yes, there is one).
The Amazone Waterpark is scheduled to open in 2013.
It all started in July 2012 with the announcement of the Ramanya Water Park, to be be built by WhiteWater West Industries on a site next to Silverlake. I’m not sure of the exact location because the Silverlake complex is currently being heavily developed.
There is an office on Thappraya road, will check them out next week when they are open:
For more information on the Ramanya Water Park, visit their website (yes, there is one).
The Ramanya Water Park is scheduled to open in late 2012.
Got all that?
Looks like we are heading for two water parks, both situated to the south of Pattaya, both constructed by the same company which means they will both likely offer similar rides. Ramanya will have the advantage of being close to Silverlake which has a wide range of other attractions, Amazone will have the advantage of the Cartoon Network branding. Who will be the winner? Water pistols at dawn to decide?
Comments 🔗
2012-09-02| Chang Noi saysThe never-ending-stories of Scams started all over the world so why not in Pattaya? Did it never occurred to those scammers that they might had more money if the would have done what they said?
The few-hunderd rai of land all around Silverlake I think is in hands of a Thai family who seem to have indeed a longterm planning of creating a kind of Khao Yai along the sea-side.
2012-09-03| BlogDaz saysNice job, must have taken ages to dig all that information up.
2012-09-03| Spike saysOther than the alleged fraud by George Morgan, there is no evidence that any scams took place. Perhaps The Beaches was just too complex to gain the necessary approvals. Looks certain that these latest projects will happen. Turner Broadcasting and the Cartoon Network are likely to deliver, and Silverlake has been developing like crazy over the past couple of years. When I went there yesterday to photograph what may or may not be the project site (hard to tell, they are building so much) the place was rammed with visitors. What’s for sure is that the road south out of Pattaya is going to be even more jammed at the weekends than it is now.
2012-09-03| Spike saysI had much of it from the past, but it was your mention of Amazon Falls (which I hadn’t picked up) which alerted me to the fact that the Cartoon site is now on its third, and hopefully final, water park iteration!
2012-09-09| chris Living Thai saysInteresting story if they have surfing i’m so there!
2012-09-10| Spike saysif they don’t, you can always go here: http://www.flowhousebangkok.com/