NEW YORK — A touch of Thailand’s beauty culture landed in Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood with the opening of Thai Privilege Spa this week. The 7,000-square-foot space offers a retail shopping mecca, too.
Upon entering the second-floor spa, at 155 Spring Street, guests are immediately transported to a land of Thai furniture, silk curtains, plush pillows and even elegant garbage baskets, all handcrafted in different regions of Thailand and imported into the U.S.
The spa’s owner, Surangrat Chirathivat, a Thai businesswoman and the daughter of a successful department store family, wants to keep alive her country’s heritage of handmade items. Everything in the spa — from a 6-foot wood and glass display case to the trinkets that fill it — is for sale. The fixture runs about $1,000; a delicate porcelain teacup with matching lid retails for $15. Items will be replaced monthly.
A traditional foot bath begins all spa treatments, keeping true to the Thai custom of washing feet before entering a home. The spa has seven treatment rooms, all equipped with wider-than-usual massage tables (masseuses often sit on the mattress edge for better leverage). Modern Thai art, silk draperies and Thai products decorate each room.
One of the rooms is designed to accommodate two people; another can accommodate up to three. This room more closely follows Thai tradition with three 4-inch-thick mattresses on the floor, several feet apart. In traditional Thai massage, guests wear loose clothing, so there is no need for privacy curtains, but the American market may not be ready for that: Curtains will be installed soon, said a spa representative.
In a foot massage area, guests can sink into plush recliners, listen to an iPod, sip tea and zone out.
The $2 million investment to build and decorate the spa should be recouped the first year of operation, said Chirathivat, who is in Shanghai overseeing a Thai Privilege Spa there. She founded her first spa in 2001 in Bangkok, and in 2003 established Thai Privilege Health Care Co. Ltd. as parent of her other spas. Chirathivat, who has gone by the name Elle since birth, has yet to see the SoHo spa, but plans to visit New York at the end of the month.
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And her schedule is about to become even more hectic: A spa in London’s Mayfair is set to open in the next four to five months and a franchise is being planned for Dubai. While Chirathivat privately owns her five spas, she is seeking investors for the Dubai expansion. Chirathivat said Thai massage is very popular with the residents of Dubai, most notably the ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum. He recently had his first Thai massage by Chirathivat’s therapists, who were flown in as special guests. The Sheikh continues to fly in therapists for massages, she said.
Chirathivat’s family is very well known in Thailand and Southeast Asia, as it owns Central Group, the largest retail and property developer in the region. In Thailand, the family owns several department store and supermarket chains, including 14 Central Department stores, 10 Central shopping centers/complexes and 66 Tops supermarkets, the largest food chain in the country. At the end of this year, Central Group will open its first Zen department store in Bangkok, targeted at a younger, fashionable and hip generation.
Chirathivat, a graduate of the University of Thailand, has a master’s degree in nursing, and is knowledgeable about indigenous Thai herbs, fruits and plants.