The history of the Ocean 1 project, reported here many times, has been a rollercoaster ride; mainly in the downward direction.

After years of inactivity, I recall the frisson of excitement that rippled through the Pattaya community when Siam Royal Best Enterprises, the developers, announced the arrival of a concrete batching plant which would be used to create the foundations. Exciting times, and the news was displayed on the Ocean 1 website.

Sadly, this was to be the last ever news update. Even more sadly, for those who had “invested” in this magnificent enterprise, the concrete plant was soon churning out concrete, but none of it was being used for foundations. Instead, the concrete was being transported to other projects that were actually being constructed.

This sad charade continued for a couple years, until one of my loyal readers who will remain nameless (thank you Egglebert), sent me some shots showing that the batching plant was being dismantled without ever having fulfilled its proclaimed purpose:

Took a trip down to the site the other day and the it looks pretty much as it did when the project was first launched five (six? seven?) years ago:

On the left of the second photo is View Talay Residence 3, another development by Bruno Pingel’s Siam Best Enterprises. Siam Best continued to manage the building after construction and had failed to comply with the Condominium Act by not providing annual accounts and not holding annual general meetings. An emergency AGM was held last month where Mr. Pingel’s representative showed his excellent knowledge of the law by replying to the question “why have you never held an AGM?” with “nobody asked us to hold one.”

The owners felt this was not an acceptable answer and joined the owners of Residence 1 and Residence 2 in dismissing Siam Best as managers and employing another company.

But what about the future of Ocean 1? Personally, I remain cautiously pessimistic.