Eventually, construction on the 200,000-square-metre (2.2 million square feet) site bogged down in a talk-of-the-town lawsuit that was only resolved by the arrival of 'white knight'investors from the US and Singapore who got the massive project moving again.

The bad days are now history and the 3.5 billion baht centre is expected to open its doors to the waiting public just a few days before Christmas.

An Old Name

The origins of the name Jungceylon - an old name for Phuket - go back to the early 16th century when Phuket was a busy port, a piece of history echoed in the supermall's logo, a colorful, two-masted Chinese Junk.

Doubts Dispelled

Khun Prawit Janyasittikul...

Prawit Janyasittikul, Deputy CEO of Jungceylon, told Phuket.com, "We in the management team are very proud to have chance to run Jungceylon, which is the biggest shopping and entertainment venue on the island.

"We are located on a very good, very well known spot. Patong Beach, as we all know, is an international resort area. We'll have customers from all over the world."

After opening, the company will continue to promote hard for at least three months among both island residents and tourists.

In addition, it will be seeking to attract more "investors", or tenants; with retail space of 75,000 square metres, there is still plenty of room for more restaurants, jewellery stores, fashion shops and other type of outlets.

Khun Prawit said, "In the past, there was some doubt and hesitation on the part of some of the investors who were interested in being our partners.

"I hope that once they have seen that Jungceylon is really open, their confidence in the possibilities of doing good businesses in Jungceylon will grow.

"When we do open, we expect to have 40,000 to 50,000 shoppers a day," he added.

Already In

200,000-square-metre site...

Jungceylon already has about 200 local and international tenants. Just a sampling of these: Carrefour supermarket, Giordano, Time Deco, Swarovski, Levi's, Swatch, Boot's the Chemist, Hanako Tokyo, Sportsworld, Indochine restaurant, MK Restaurant, Fuji Restaurant, Coffee World, Häagen Dazs, Au Bon Pain, Burger King and Krungthai Bank.

Finding a place to park while shopping will not be a problem. There will be spaces for 2,000 cars and 120 tour buses. But write down the number of the bay you parked in or you may never find your car again.