Bogor administration stops hotel construction

Bogor administration stops hotel construction

Theresia Sufa, The Jakarta Post, Bogor

The Bogor municipal administration has stopped the construction
of the Holiday Inn hotel on a plot of land on Jl. Pangrango,
Bogor, where the office of state-owned Radio Republic Indonesia
(RRI) stands, following a letter from the Ministry of Tourism and
Culture on the plan to demolish the building and replace it with
a hotel.

The letter, signed by the ministry's deputy of history and
archeology, Anhar Gonggong, said that the ministry had asked for
information on the plan to build the hotel because the RRI
building should be considered a heritage site as it was located
in the old part of Bogor.

The municipal government immediately sent a letter to PT Mirah
Segar's director Yasir Yahya. In the letter signed by Bogor City
Secretary Deddy S. Hamdan, the municipality demanded that Yasir
immediately contact Anhar to clarify the matter.

PT Mirah Segar chief commissioner and owner of Mirah Hotel,
Yahya Muhamad, told the press on Tuesday that he had purchased
the land from Bank Indonesia. The central bank is the official
owner of the 7,000-square-meter site because the colonial-style
building was formerly the official residence of Yusuf Muda Dalam,
the last central bank governor and minister of finance under
founding president Sukarno.

The building has been used by RRI since 1965.

The company plans to move the radio station to a new location.

"The ministry's letter is a concern because it has made the
Bogor mayor delay the construction of the Holiday Inn Hotel,"
Yahya said. "The mayor should have answered the letter instead of
issuing a letter to halt construction. If it is indeed a
historical building, it shouldn't have been sold. That's what
confuses me."

The new hotel will be a 14-story building, the tallest in
Bogor city when it is completed, with 182 rooms. The construction
of the hotel will cost Rp 105 billion (US$12.36 million).