Downtown Kota to become tourist site

Downtown Kota to become tourist site

JAKARTA (JP): The city administration will transform the Kota
(downtown) area in West Jakarta into a tourist attraction by
permitting private investors to use old and historical buildings
as hotels and restaurants, an official says.

"We are still studying the possibility of issuing permits for
the operation of hotels, discos and restaurants in the old
buildings in Kota,"Prawoto S. Danoemihardjo, assistant of the
City Secretary, said Tuesday as quoted by the Antara news agency.

He explained that an investor has expressed interest in using
the Ceramic Museum in Kota as a hotel, but his proposal was
rejected by the city administration on the grounds that the
museum is protected by law.

Kota is the site in which foreigners entered the city through
Sunda Kelapa harbor in the middle of the 17th century. They
developed buildings and changed the area into a center for trade
and shipping.

In Kota parts of the old buildings which were built way back
then still stand but people use them for other purposes. Museum
Bahari, for example, which was built in 1652, originally was a
warehouse to hold enormous stocks of pepper, coffee, tea and
cloth owned by the Dutch company VOC.

Prawoto said that the plan to change the status of the old
buildings for tourism purposes is in line with a proposal by the
Ministry of Post, Telecommunications and Tourism to use them and
Kota's environment as one of tourist objects in the city as well
as to bring the swing back into the area's nightlife.

He also explained that the Kota area falls under the
preservation policy of protecting historical buildings from
irresponsible renovation or demolition.

"Old buildings should not be changed structurally and
architecturally but their function could be changed," he said.

Meanwhile, the head of Museum and history office Dirman
Surachmat said that historical buildings which are protected by
the preservation law must not be changed or renovated unless the
renovation maintains its originality.

"As a historian it would be a sham if there is an inaccuracy
in an historical building," Dirman said.

Warehouses

In a related development, West Jakarta mayor Sutardiyanto said
yesterday that he basically agreed with the city administration's
plan to change old buildings into hotels or restaurants as long
as it is limited to old structures, including warehouses, owned
by individuals or private companies.

"We will not allow private companies to change museums or
other old historical buildings owned by the government into
hotels or restaurants. But we do encourage them to use warehouses
or other buildings," Sutardiyanto said at the Textile museum.

Although the area still functions as the center of trade, most
of the owners are no longer living there. They use the buildings
mainly as warehouses.

Sutardiyanto said that his office will seal over 30 old
buildings which are being used as warehouses in the Kota area at
the end of this month due to improper permits.

Sutardiyanto explained that based on existing permits, those
buildings are designed for shops and not for warehouses.

"We have warned them," he said, adding that originally 63 old
buildings were used as warehouses but half of them have stopped
their operations.

"Many trucks pass around by the warehouses and their
vibrations are feared to endanger the other historical buildings
protected by law in the area," Sutardiyanto said. (yns/mas)