Work has begun in earnest
I've just returned from 3 weeks in Bangkok, and am happy to report to all Hilton aficionados that work on the riverside hotel began in earnest last week. Due to the many ongoing construction projects in the city, Hilton's contractor was having trouble finding enough crew to deal with the workload. Apparently, this hurdle has been overcome.
The rumour, propagated mainly by tour guides, that the hotel was sinking and litigation between Sofitel and its insurers caused its abandonment for many years is actually false. In truth, it was simply a casualty of the '97 economic meltdown, much the same as KL's abandoned Hyatt project still is. The original backers/banks pulled out, a few bankruptcies ensued, no new buyers were found for a hotel property in a soft market and that is why it remained empty for so long. Of course, the sinking tale is much more entertaining. Actually, a number of hotels and buildings along the Chao Phraya have sunk or tilted to a certain degree. This doesn't mean they are about to topple. Structural engineering in the 21st century has seen to that.
From what I've been told, by someone who represented another hotel chain interested in its purchase, the hotel was 80% complete at the time of abandonment. However, major work has to be redone, and a gutting of the interior and resurfacing of the exterior will most likely prevent this Hilton Millenium from opening any sooner than October 2005.