The Jumeirah Private Island Phuket project on Koh Raet covers 175 rai off the northeastern coast of the southern resort island. The group acquired the plots from 2006 until early this year from Anchalee Vanich Tepabutr, a well-known landlord and Democrat Party politician in Phuket.

The total land investment was not disclosed, but market prices for plots in nearby locations were around 15-25 million baht a rai, he said.

The project was formerly named Barama Bay but the name was changed after successful negotiations with Jumeirah. The venture has received environmental impact assessment (EIA) approval to start construction.

The entire site will cost five billion baht to develop and take three to eight years to complete. It will have a deep-water superyacht marina and 50 luxury villas, 35 of them already sold with 30-year leases to foreign buyers from 15 different countries. As well, there will be a 107- room luxury hotel developed at a cost of 1.65 billion baht.

Villas would be located on a total of 104 rai. Prices excluding land cost will range between 60 million and 150 million baht. The Jumeirah Group will manage the villas for any buyers interested in renting them out.

The hotel, occupying 71 rai, will be developed and owned by the subsidiary TGR Beach Co Ltd and operated by Jumeirah, which plans to buy stakes in the subsidiary.

''Two weeks ago we applied for Board of Investment privileges for the subsidiary. This approach will open an opportunity to have foreign investors buy more than half of the stake in the subsidiary,'' Mr Dilokpol said.

The BoI application process will take two months to complete. ''BoI approval will add value to the subsidiary's equity. Land values will also rise,'' he said.

The company also plans to change the island's name from Koh Raet.

Mr Dilokpol said that the completed hotel would have a value of at least three billion baht while the value of the subsidiary's shares would depend on the values of the land plots that the hotel owned.

''During the development of the whole project, we will not sell it [the whole project] to the Dubai investor as we want to control development. But after that, we will consider it again,'' he said.

Besides Jumeirah, six investors and funds from the Middle East, Europe and Hong Kong are expected to bid for stakes.

Mr Dilokpol said the property business in Phuket had been booming for the past five years, especially in the luxury residential and hotel sectors. The group expects the Phuket real estate market to continue expanding by approximately 15% in the second half of 2008.

Established in 2004, TGR Group (an abbreviation for Think and Grow Rich) is a 51:49 joint venture between Mr Dilokpol and Canadian investor Edward Powis, a 60-year-old veteran of the North American property development business.

Mr Dilokpol, 48, has more than 20 years of property development and management experience, much of it with multinational companies.

He is the middle son of Pol Col Ampol Sundaravej, a cousin of Mr Samak, and Saadchome Banomyong, a niece of Senior Statesman Pridi Banomyong. His grandmother Utumporn is the aunt of social campaigner Mechai Viravidhya.

Educated at Vajiravudh College and at Bromsgrove School in England, he holds bachelor's and master's degrees in civil engineering from Ohio University.

He began his property career with Arun Chaiseri Consulting and was project director of a golf club in which his father had co-invested. He later joined the trading firm Berli Jucker before returning to the property field as a project engineer with Bovis Lend Lease, a multinational real estate and construction firm.

While working with Bovis, he took part in the deal in which LaSalle Investment Management acquired the Karon Villa hotel from the husband of Anchalee Tepabutr for 1.6 billion baht. The hotel was rebranded as Movenpick and is now owned by a Middle East investor.

After serving as country manager of Bovis Lend Lease, he later joined Jones Lang LaSalle as a country head of project development before leaving in 2005 to start his own development business.