ACCOMMODATION - Growing a real estate success with Grove Gardens

ScandAsia.com, 2006-10-25

For those keen on property in Southeast Asia, it is probably hard to find a developer originating from Scandinavia with more experience than Swedish Lars Ydmark of Tri-Asia, a Phuket-based management company within the hospitality business and more recently a developer on the real estate market.
Well-known among Scandinavians for Jiva Resort and Spa, 2006 has also seen the finalization of Tri-Asia’s first real estate, Grove Gardens, on Phuket’s east coast. Nearly all units were sold by then on this housing estate which puts the individual in the centre.
“The minimalist design allows the individual to design their own home with the flair they want, without any extra cost and having to change the existing plan. You can compare it with a hotel in that everything looks the same. However the interior will be individual. We don’t force them anything complicated that they might like or not like, so they have the possibility of continuing to develop by them selves,” Lars, who did not become a developer over night, explains.
Having opened twelve hotels up to now for the likes of Sheraton, Shangri-La, Accor, and for himself, Lars knows the process in and out from inception to completion.
Having started out in the Asia-Pasific region on Fiji in 1990, he established the Thailand-based firm with this Thai wife in 1999, after a few worthwhile years working for Novotel and Amanpuri respectively.
“If not for the first years employed as a GM and the knowledge I gained from opening three hotels in Thailand, then I would not have been just as successful today. That was a very good entrance to start running one’s own business,” says Lars with appreciation.
Also, this was a very fruitful period within tourism as the Asian financial crisis made Southeast Asia a real bargain for visitors.
“During my three years with Accor we had nothing less than 90 per cent occupancy and could increase the prices every year.”
Tri-Asia initially took care of some hotel management contracts in Southern Thailand before embarking on the challenge of building their own hotel Jiva, a business venture that came to be both very trying and another essential learning experience. As Jiva opened in 2002, the invasion of Iraq, the Bali bombing, and all the rest of it, followed with the tsunami on top of everything.
But since 2005 business caught up significantly, while the property sector really never saw any downward trend at all.
Lars brought along the constructor of his own house and the subcontractors from Jiva to Grove Gardens. It is difficult to find people and good subcontractors, especially when you are a small business.
“There are many accepting large projects without having the organization enabling them to deliver. So they have breakdowns and go bankrupt,” says Lars who has learned the hard way.

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