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)