Management tender to open for historical heritage
Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The Jakarta Culture and Museum Agency will open bidding for companies interested in managing a heritage building on Jl. Teuku Umar 1, Central Jakarta, as an art-and-cultural-show venue.
"We offer companies the chance to be serious bidders to make use of the building as a cultural venue. However, the winner of the bidding would be allowed to operate and develop relevant businesses at the site, such as a restaurant or a cafe," said Suryadi, an agency official responsible for the promotion of heritage buildings.
However, he failed to mention the exact date of the tender, saying that the agency was still deciding upon it.
The building concerned was designed by Dutch architect Pieter Adriaan Jocobus Moojen in 1912, and construction started that same year. It was previously named the Netherlands-Indische Kunstkring (the Netherlands-India Art Circle). The building served as the Jakarta Immigration Office until 1997, before the ownership was handed over to private developer PT Mandala Griya Cipta in 1998.
The developer managed to take over the building from the government through a land-swap deal. The company had planned to demolish the building and replace it with a new one, but the plan was strongly opposed by the public.
The administration bought back the building from the company for Rp 28 billion in 2002. Unfortunately, some antiques, which had previously been part of the land-swap deal, were lost under the ownership of the private developer.
According to Suryadi, the city administration has allocated Rp 6.1 billion (US$709,302) from its 2004 budget to renovate the heritage building, which has been seriously damaged.
The administration had earlier allocated Rp 6.75 billion for the renovation last year but the agency failed to implement the designated project. It only spent Rp 300 million on organizing a contest for the redesign of the building.
Suryadi said the renovation process was still in the early stage. He explained that the existing site was being measured and structural and archeological tests were underway.
The structural test would determine the strength of the building's structure, while the archeological test would uncover which building materials were used at the time of construction.
"The results of the tests will be important information for the renovation of the old building," Suryadi said.