cnx_vinyl/docs/site-candidates.md

# Site Candidates

The site strategy is a long lease of raw land on which the purpose-built
plant is constructed (business plan section 6.1, built from
`business-plan/build/`). What any site has to offer is unchanged: ~4 rai
minimum and 6 to 8 rai with expansion, truck access and turning, room for
the cooling tower and a separated battery enclosure, a 500 to 1,000 kVA
medium-voltage connection, a slab rated 3 t/m² and a frame able to carry
the overhead crane ([scale](scale.md),
[crane, workshop and tours](crane-workshop-tours.md)), factory permission
for pressing with a steam boiler, and, for Phase 5, permission for an
electroplating line ([galvanics and stamper prep](equipment/galvanics.md)).

## The three candidates

| | Mueang Chi, Lamphun | Northern Region Industrial Estate, Lamphun | Payap University land, Chiang Mai |
|---|---|---|---|
| Status | Working candidate: the massing model, PV roof design and [construction RFQ](finance/phase1-construction-rfq.md) are sited here | Fallback | New lead (October 2026): the university approached the project and is interested in leasing land to us |
| Lessor | Private owner | IEAT | Payap University (private, non-profit, founded by the Foundation of the Church of Christ in Thailand) |
| Plot | 5-0-66.5 rai, 18.4708 N, 98.9642 E, narrow and skewed | Leased estate plots | Not yet identified. The main (Mae Khao) campus is at 18.795 N, 99.033 E |
| Distance to Chiang Mai old city | ~35 km | Lamphun valley | ~5 km east, on the Chiang Mai–Lampang superhighway |
| Zoning for factory use | Unverified (agricultural land) | Industrial estate; licensing through the estate | Unverified |
| Galvanics effluent | Ours to permit; zero discharge | Shared central effluent treatment | Needs the lessor's consent on top of the permit |
| Neighbours | Agricultural | Industrial | A pharmaceutical facility under construction on the same land |

## Payap University (new lead, October 2026)

**What we know from the conversation:** Payap University is interested in
leasing land to the project, and a pharmaceutical facility is under
construction on the same land. The plot, its size, the title, the term and
the rent are not known yet.

**Public facts.** Payap's main campus, Mae Khao, is at 272 Moo 2, San
Phranet, San Sai district, on the Chiang Mai–Lampang superhighway. The
university bought it in 1974 as about 120 acres of low-lying land and has
since grown it to about 275 acres (~700 rai) with purchases across the ring
road (Payap's own history page). Its Faculty of Pharmacy put the
construction of a cosmetics production facility and co-working space out to
tender in July 2024, and the university has announced a centre for
producing active compounds from cannabis and medicinal plants by bioreactor
(RPAH) with an industry sponsor. Whether either of these is the
pharmaceutical facility on the offered land is to be confirmed.

**Why it is worth pursuing.**

- **Location.** About 5 km from the old city and 25 to 30 km nearer the
  team, customers and the airport than Mueang Chi. The
  [visitor corridor](crane-workshop-tours.md), the
  [artist platform](artist-platform.md) and hiring all work better in town.
- **A partner, not only a landlord.** Payap also wants to build new
  student programmes with us in audio engineering (mastering, lathe
  cutting), IT and business administration; that strand has its own page,
  [Payap partnership](payap-partnership.md). Its Faculty of Pharmacy has
  analytical labs that could back the PVC material lab
  ([quality automation](quality-automation.md)), and a formal university
  collaboration is the kind of R&D and skills cooperation the
  [BOI](boi.md) merit measures reward; confirm which measure applies.
- **Production is already being built there.** If the pharmaceutical
  facility has factory permission, the land may already have a path
  through licensing and a medium-voltage supply nearby. Shared
  infrastructure (MV connection, RO water, effluent treatment) is worth
  asking about.

**What could rule it out** (check in this order, before any design work):

1. **Zoning.** The plot's colour in the Chiang Mai comprehensive city plan
   and whether it allows a record-pressing factory with a steam boiler and,
   later, electroplating. A pharmaceutical or cosmetics plant and an
   electroplating line are different factory classes, so the neighbour's
   permit proves little. Ask the provincial public works and town planning
   office, as for Mueang Chi.
2. **Can the university lease to a company?** Title type (Chanote needed),
   university council approval, and whether campus land of a private
   higher-education institution carries restrictions on commercial leases.
   This is a question for Thai counsel, together with the lease terms the
   business plan already requires (registered 30-year lease with renewal,
   building ownership, mortgageable).
3. **The pharmaceutical neighbour.** A GMP facility is sensitive to dust,
   smoke and fumes. Ours: the boiler stack (biomass smoke next to a
   pharmaceutical plant in town would be a hard sell, which favours
   electric or LPG steam; see [biomass](biomass.md)), galvanics extraction,
   PVC extrusion fumes, press noise and truck traffic. Agree emission and
   buffer rules in the lease rather than after the first complaint.
4. **Flooding.** Payap describes the Mae Khao land as low-lying when bought.
   Check the plot against the 2024 flood extents; the design's floor, 1.2 m
   above ground for the loading docks, helps but is not a flood
   assessment.
5. **Plot fit.** Shape and size against the 60 × 25 m building, the
   detached utility yard and the phase 2 footprint (6 to 8 rai). The
   Payap scenario model below needs a 135 m square (11.4 rai) as drawn,
   with room for ten more Classics and a reserve.
6. **Galvanics on a campus.** Phase 5 electroplating needs the lessor's
   written consent; the zero-discharge design
   ([sustainability](sustainability.md)) becomes a lease condition, not
   only a commitment.

**Questions for the next meeting with Payap:** which plot (map, size,
title deed number), its zoning and current use; what the pharmaceutical
facility is, who operates it and when it opens; what utilities it brings
(MV, water, wastewater); lease term, rent, renewal and building ownership;
what collaboration the university wants in return.

Nothing has been re-sited. The parametric model, PV roof study, RFQ and
the fleet site code `lpn` in the [digital factory](digital-factory.md)
stay on Mueang Chi until a Payap plot is known and has passed checks 1
and 2.

### Payap scenario model (October 2026)

To see the plant on Payap land before a plot is known, a separate
parametric BIM model sites it on a simple square plot:
[cnx_vinyl_parametric_payap.FCStd](cnx_vinyl_parametric_payap.FCStd)
(top view [PNG](cnx_vinyl_parametric_payap.png),
[isometric](cnx_vinyl_parametric_payap-iso.png)), built in FreeCAD 26.3
from BIM walls, slabs, columns, spaces and equipment. Every size and
position hangs off its `Params` spreadsheet (plot side, setbacks, floor
level, building sizes, fire wall line, office and water treatment gaps),
so the square can be swapped for the real plot once Payap names one. It
is a layout sketch: every position and every equipment envelope is an
estimate.

- **Plot**: 135 × 135 m (18,225 m², 11.4 rai), road assumed on the south
  side, 6 m setbacks (placeholder). That is more than the 6 to 8 rai of
  [scale](scale.md): the factory keeps room for ten more Classics, and the
  plot keeps a reserve in front for a second hall or a PV field.
- **Factory, production floor only**: 112 × 25 m at floor level +1.2 m,
  16 frame bays, in process order along an 82 m glazed visitor corridor.
  From west to east: staff entry and lockers; workshop and spares, with
  the machine door and a 12 m vehicle ramp at the north-west corner;
  galvanics clean room with a chemical day store; stamper prep, PVC lab,
  material area and the electrical room; the press hall; trim and optical
  inspection, QC lab, and finishing and packaging. Behind the fire wall at
  90 m are the warehouse and dispatch with two dock doors.
  - The press hall (~870 m²) holds two Duplex systems, each two HRP 12
    presses with an EX 50 and an EX 35, the Classic, and **ten more
    Classic positions** in two rows
    ([pressing line](equipment/pressing-line.md)).
  - **One shared hydraulic and compressed-air supply**: a central plant
    room (~62 m²) at the west end of the press hall, and a service trench
    along the press rows for the hydraulic ring main, compressed air,
    steam and cooling water.
  - The workshop (~200 m²) is fully equipped, with 3D printers, a lathe
    and a small CNC mill among the tools
    ([crane, workshop and tours](crane-workshop-tours.md)).
  - The 5 t crane runs from the west wall to the fire wall.
- **Water treatment building**, separate, 12 × 10 m at ground level
  directly behind galvanics: zero-discharge effluent treatment, the DI
  water plant and the chemical store. A buried duct carries the effluent
  by gravity from the galvanics floor, and a covered crossing (6 m clear
  for trucks) joins the galvanics door
  ([galvanics](equipment/galvanics.md)).
- **Office building, isolated from the factory floor**: 24 × 15 m, single
  storey, 12 m south of the factory on its own slab and structure, joined
  by a covered link that lands at the start of the visitor corridor.
  - It holds reception, offices, a meeting and training room (the
    [Payap programmes](payap-partnership.md)), mastering and cutting with
    an inner acoustic lining, the listening room, the IT and server room,
    the archive, and WC and kitchen.
  - The lathe sits away from press vibration and outside the crane zone.
- **Utility yard** behind the press hall, across a 6 m lane:
  - boiler house with chimney and a covered fuel store;
  - chiller and cooling tower;
  - process and fire water tanks;
  - PEA transformer;
  - a pipe bridge that drops into the service trench.

  Boiler, chiller and transformer are drawn at the one-Duplex sizes. They
  need re-sizing for five presses, and again if the Classics are added
  ([scale](scale.md)).
- **Access**:
  - one gate on the south side opens onto a truck apron in front of the
    dock doors;
  - an access road runs along the south boundary to the car park, with
    a footpath to the office;
  - a lane behind the factory serves the yard, the water treatment
    building and the ramp. The low-loader's swept path at the ramp still
    needs checking.
- **Area**: about 2,800 m² of factory, 360 m² of office and 120 m² of
  water treatment, so ~3,280 m² under roof plus the boiler house. That is
  well above the 1,400 to 2,000 m² of the [scale](scale.md) zone table,
  which held one Duplex and an automated zone with the offices inside.
  - Two thirds of the difference is the press hall with its expansion
    floor.
  - Warehouse and dispatch (~530 m²) are drawn above that table's 300 to
    500 m² for packaging and finished goods.

  All of it is an estimate to settle against the real plot.

The Mueang Chi model and everything sited on it stay as they are.