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From the ashes: Historic Sarinah to make comeback
Sarinah Jakarta Content Week took place last month for its second year, just months before the official relaunch of Jakarta's first high-rise building, Sarinah.
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Renewal: Workers renovate the Sarinah building, one of the oldest shopping centers in the capital, on Jl. MH Thamrin in Jakarta on Monday. The Rp 700 billion (US$ 47.55 million) renovation project seeks to create a place for products from the country’s creative economy and is expected to finish by March 2022. (JP/Dhoni Setiawan)
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arinah, which was inaugurated by founding president Sukarno in 1966, was an integral part of Jakarta's 60s-80s urban landscape. Fashionable folk would walk down the building's 15 floors during its heydays for the latest fashion and culinary offerings. Today, people in and outside Jakarta remember the building as the first Indonesian shopping mall, one that is waiting to rise from its slumber.
"I went to Sarinah with my family and friends back then. It was a long time ago. I went to a nearby university, and it was the closest hangout option," said Donna Subroto, a housewife from South Jakarta. "When Plaza Indonesia was inaugurated, I changed my hangout place from Sarinah to the new mall."
State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) Minister Erick Thohir believes that the iconic building is a gem waiting to be polished and has promised a revival of the Sarinah Department Store in collaboration with Switzerland-based duty-free retailer Dufry. The new Sarinah will not be relaunched until March 2022.
For those who needed to quench their curiosity about the renovation, Sarinah Jakarta Content Week (Sarinah Jaktent) 2021, which took place from Dec. 1-12, allowed invitees and attendees to take a sneak peek at this legendary establishment, although not all took the chance. Take Lia, who prefers to only share her nickname, for instance, and who joined Jaktent for the literature events.
"I'm 26 years old, but I never visited Sarinah before," said the Bekasi resident. "What I remember most about Sarinah is [that it was home] of the first McDonald's in Jakarta."
Fetty Kwartati, president director of PT Sarinah (Persero), plans to provide wide opportunities for local content creators and small and medium business owners. She said, "Sarinah's new face in the future is to become a community mall, which means that Sarinah's business in the future will depend on creativity and community involvement."
