Colonial architecture for new Menteng hotel

Colonial architecture for new Menteng hotel

JAKARTA (JP): A new three-star hotel in the elite Menteng
residential district in Central Jakarta is to be built to
resemble a house from colonial times.

The project, on a 2,553-square-meter plot on Jl. Probolinggo,
will be jointly undertaken by city-owned developer PT Pulo Mas
Jaya and the Sahid Jaya Group, a leading Indonesian hotel chain.

The latter will also manage the facility.

"I believe that the Sahid Jaya Group is a reliable partner
because of its experience in the hotel business," Pulo Mas Jaya
President Iman Sunario told The Jakarta Post.

The Sahid Jaya Group owns and manages 24 hotels in Indonesia
and one each in Singapore and Hong Kong.

The 121-room hotel will have nine stories and two basement
floors.

Jakarta Governor Surjadi Soedirdja, who inaugurated the
project's ground-breaking ceremony yesterday, said the hotel
would complement the spatial plan for Menteng, where colonial
houses coexisted with modern structures.

"Jakarta should not have only modern hotels, but also
classically-design ones to remind people of the history of
Batavia," he said, referring to the name of Jakarta during the
Dutch colonial era.

Sahid Jaya Group Vice President Yanti Sukamdani Hardjoprakoso
said the Rp 27 billion ($10.8 million) project will be completed
in 18 months and the hotel would be fully operation in February
1999.

"We will probably name the hotel as Sahid Menteng," Yanti
said.

Pulo Mas Jaya will hold 70 percent of the shares in the
project and Sahid the rest, she said.

Construction was originally scheduled to start in June but it
was delayed to allow 24 families who had lived in the apartment
building on the site to find new homes.

The old building was torn down last month. (07)