The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The luxury hotel, apartment and office complex currently being built at a cost of Rp 2.3 trillion (US$247 billion) on the sites of the former Hotel Indonesia and Hotel Inna Wisata will be officially opened some time next year.
The massive development, which will be called the Grand Indonesia center, occupies a 7-hectare site off the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle on Jl Thamrin, Central Jakarta.
It will boast a five-star hotel, an apartment block, an office building and two shopping malls.
Frans H. Lazaro, managing director of the complex's developer, PT Grand Indonesia, said in Jakarta on Thursday that the operation and management of the hotel and apartments would be awarded to the Kempinski international hotel chain.
The hotel would be named the Hotel Indonesia Kempinski, while the apartments would be called the Kempinski Residences
""We have chosen Kempinski as our partner because they really know what we want from this project,"" Frans said, adding that the new hotel would retain the historical facade of the old Hotel Indonesia.
The state-owned Hotel Indonesia, completed in 1962, was the first five-star hotel in the country and the place where president Sukarno liked to have breakfast and receive his guests.
In 2004, one of Indonesia's major cigarette producers, PT Djarum, through subsidiary PT Cipta Karya Bumi Indah (CKBI), won the tender to redevelop the Hotel Indonesia and Hotel Wisata, which were located within the same complex.
CKBI is building the complex under a 30-year build, operate and transfer (BOT) contract. This means that the company will have to transfer the property to the government after 30 years, excluding construction time.
""That is why we are racing for the deadline. We hope that the entire project will be completed by next year,"" Frans explained.
He said that the malls were due to be completed in April next year, the office building in July, the apartments at the end of October and the hotel by the end of the year.
""We are very optimistic about this project. We project that we can reach breakeven point in between 10 and 13 years,"" Frans said.
The complex comprises a 72,000-square-meter office building with 57 floors, two eight-story shopping malls with a total floor space of 150,000 square meters, 192 apartments, eight junior penthouses, and three penthouses with a total floor space of 72,000 square meters, and the hotel with around of 270 rooms and total floor space of 30,000 square meters. (09)
