Grand Indonesia offers new shopping experience

Grand Indonesia offers new shopping experience

Tantri Yuliandini, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

"Build it and they will come" said the character that Kevin
Costner played in the 1989 movie Field of Dreams, a quote which
also seems to be the byword for the management of PT Grand
Indonesia, which is constructing a 7-hectare hotel-apartment-
shopping mall-office complex in the city center.

But in times of economic downturn like these, and with many
other malls under construction, will they really come?

Grand Indonesia managing director Frans H. Lazaro thinks so.

"People will come wherever there are shopping malls. The more
there are in one location, the more people will come. Just take a
look at what happened in Singapore," he said on Thursday.

Built beside the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle in Central
Jakarta, the Grand Indonesia complex is in a prime spot, although
it will be in direct competition with neighboring Plaza Indonesia
and Plaza EX.

"We have a very strong location here, and I think instead of
being in competition with the Plaza Indonesia complex, we will
complement each other," Frans said on the sidelines of an event
to introduce Grand Indonesia to prospective tenants.

The Rp 2.3 trillion (about US$230 million) complex is being
built on the property of the historic Hotel Indonesia and the
former state-owned Hotel Wisata. PT Grand Indonesia -- 75 percent
owned by cigarette-maker PT Djarum through its subsidiary PT
Cipta Karya Bumi Indah -- will operate the complex through a 30-
year built-operation-transfer (BOT) agreement with the
government.

When it opens in September 2006, the complex will boast the
largest high-end shopping mall in the country, with 150,000
square meters of rentable space, and at 57 floors, will be the
tallest office tower in Indonesia.

To date, about 60 percent of the shopping space has been
rented, the largest tenant being Thailand's Central Department
Store that rented 41,000 square meters.

Renji Betari, an employee of PT CB Richard Ellis Indonesia --
Grand Indonesia's marketing agent -- said the Grand Indonesia
Shopping Town would comprise of two malls connected by a bridge
over Jl. Teluk Betung.

Mall A, located on the HI traffic circle, will house high-end
boutiques, while the building replacing Hotel Wisata will be used
for entertainment and leisure, including a movie theater chain
from Singapore.

Hotel Indonesia -- the country's first high-rise hotel -- was
constructed in 1959 with war reparations from Japan. The work was
undertaken by Japan's Taisei Corporation and in 1961, the New
York-based Inter-Continental Hotel Corporation took over
management. The Hotel Indonesia Inter-Continental officially
opened on Aug. 5, 1962.

The renovations to Hotel Indonesia that are currently underway
are meant to bring back the hotel to its original condition,
removing the additional lobby canopy that architects say has
ruined the modernist design.

And the new high-rise structure around it would be designed to
harmoniously compliment the original building's modernism, Frans
said.

"All of the hotel's original architecture will be preserved,
but we have to change the material because the existing material
is already more than 40 years old."

This time around, Singapore's The Fullerton group will manage
the hotel, creating a five-star Hotel Indonesia The Fullerton.
The chain was chosen because it was experienced in managing
hotels designed on heritage buildings, Frans said.

The Fullerton will also manage Grand Indonesia's luxury
serviced apartments.

The department store, Grand Indonesia Shopping Town, has a
target market that includes 28 percent of Jakarta's citizens, at
least 5 percent of Indonesia's population, and foreign visitors.