Hotel Mulia had 'green light' to breach rules

Hotel Mulia had 'green light' to breach rules

JAKARTA (JP): A Hotel Mulia Senayan executive said the hotel
had been given permission to breach height restrictions during
the construction of its first tower.

Speaking on behalf of the hotel's management, Enggartiasto
Lukita, said that there had never been any talk of fines for the
breach.

"We were never told about such an obligation by the
municipality under the then governor and he never asked us about
it," Enggar, a member of the 19th SEA Games consortium, said.

"The then governor acknowledged that the hotel's construction
was violating regulations on the building's height. But, because
of the desperate situation which made it necessary for the hotel
to be completed within 10 months for the sake of the 19th SEA
Games, the municipality gave its support to enable the hotel to
be built."

Based on the plan, jointly signed by the city governor and
secretary/state minister, the hotel's first tower was permitted
to have 16 stories. But the tower was built with 40 stories and
1,006 rooms.

Hotel Mulia on Jl. Gelora in Senayan, South Jakarta, can be
forced to pay about Rp 20.58 billion (US$5.6 million) in fines,
according to city bylaws No. 4/1975 on high-rise buildings and
No.9/1985 on fines for breaches of height regulations.

Speaking at a plenary session of Commission D for development
affairs, Enggar said the then governor had allowed the contractor
-- the Mulia Group -- to go ahead with the project by being
lenient in the processing of the building permit.

"He let us construct the building while the permit was being
processed. If we followed the usual procedures, the permit would
have to be ready before construction work could begin.".

Enggar revealed that Hotel Mulia would never have been built
if it was not for the sake of the SEA Games.

"Initially (the SEA Games consortium) was thinking about
booking out all hotels in Jakarta, but the idea was rejected
because of the negative effects it may have on tourism."

Enggar said the government later came up with the idea of
building a hotel near the sports venues that could accommodate
all the athletes. But no contractors were willing to build the
hotel on such a tight schedule.

"The only way to force contractors to build it was by issuing
an official government instruction," he said. "And, based on
field experience, Mulia Group was considered the ideal
contractor."

He said Mulia Group built Wisma GKBI, a high-rise building on
Jl. Sudirman, Central Jakarta, within 11 months.

"Wismoyo Arismunandar, head of the Indonesian Sports Council,
officially asked Mulia to perform the task. With an official
instruction dated Nov. 1, 1996, Mulia started the 'impossible'
job."

Enggar said the cost of the project, initially estimated to be
less than US$200 million, jumped to about $240 million due to the
cost of speeding up the process.

The construction of the hotel was completed within nine months
and entirely funded by the Jakarta Country Club (JCC), which was
given a contract by the Gelora Senayan Management Board to build
and operate the hotel, he said.

"It is completely untrue if reports say that the funds to
construct the hotel came from the SEA Games consortium's money.

"Bambang Trihatmodjo, who is the chief commissioner of JCC, is
also chairman of the consortium. That's why people often got the
wrong impression. I tell you, not a dime of the consortium's
money went into building this hotel."

During yesterday's meeting, Enggar said construction of the
hotel's second tower would probably be delayed due to the
monetary crisis.

"But we will finish the project's construction later. We can't
possibly get sufficient investment returns if we don't build (the
second tower)."

The planned tower will be 56 stories and designed for long-
term guests, he said.

"The bottom line is we will maintain Hotel Mulia as a
multipurpose hotel. We owe that much to the municipality for
their participation in making an 'impossible' job become a
reality." (edt/ind)