When Jakarta’s first retail center Sarinah was inaugurated by Indonesia’s founding father and first president,
Sukarno, in 1967, it made headlines for being the first high-rise building in Jakarta.

Standing 74 meters high with 15 stories in Menteng, in the heart of Jakarta, the state-run high rise was expected to serve as a stimulator of economic growth and means for the distribution of goods to the public to advance the interests of society’s lower class amid the country’s then-abysmal macroeconomic condition.

Named after Sukarno’s nanny, who came from a modest socio-economic background, Sarinah symbolizes support for the poor.

In its opening days, the store provided various kinds of household needs as well as entertainment facilities, like movie theaters and a children’s playground. Other services such as a beauty salon, barbershop and tailors were also available.

Now, the store sells creative products like batik, woven fabric and handicrafts from across the country. The building also hosts various food outlets.

The building holds a special place in the hearts of many Jakartans, who felt a certain sense of pride when visiting the store.

During former United States president Barack Obama’s visit to the University of Indonesia, Depok, West Java, in November 2010, he reminisced that Sarinah was a place where he filled his time as a child.

Obama spent around four years of his childhood in Menteng.

“Now, Jakarta looked very different in those days. The city was filled with buildings that were no more than a few stories tall. This was back in 1967, ‘68 — most of you weren’t born yet.  The Hotel Indonesia was one of the few high rises, and there was just one big department store called Sarinah. That was it,” Obama said as reported on obamawhitehouse.archives.gov.

Once the tallest building in the capital, Sarinah is now dwarfed by skyscrapers and has seen a decline in visitors amid tight competition with bigger, more modern shopping malls.

After more than five decades serving as a catalyst for economic growth, the enterprise will undergo its first major rejuvenation this year to stay relevant to modern-day customers. Three 41-story towers are to be developed in the area to complement the existing shopping center.

“The project will mark a transformation of Sarinah as an icon and window of Indonesia, where foreign and domestic customers can get Indonesia’s high-quality creative products,” Sarinah president director GNP Sugiarta Yasa said on Friday, adding that state-owned developers PT Wijaya Karya and PT Pembangunan Perumahan would break ground on two of three planned towers in March.

The construction, he said, was expected to be completed by the middle of 2020.

“We hope to make Sarinah an icon of Indonesia again. Back then, people felt pride when they visited Sarinah, and we want to bring back that sense of pride. We want people to want to visit Sarinah every time they visit Jakarta,” he added.

The new buildings will house premium restaurants and offices for meetings and conferences as well as exhibition halls, in addition to displaying various high-end products. Sugiarta said the old building would only see minor interior changes to preserve its originality.

Various signature Indonesian products, such as batik and wijaya kusuma flowers, would be crafted on site, he said.

Sugiarta promised that small and medium enterprises would be given priority access to the vendor spaces.

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