Mulia Senayan to open mid September

JAKARTA (JP): Hotel Mulia Senayan on Jl. Asia Afrika is scheduled to open mid next month, less than a year after the project started in November 1996.

Minister of Tourism, Post and Telecommunications Joop Ave said here yesterday the hotel project was a miracle given its record construction period.

"It's a record that the hotel project, with more than 40 stories and over 1,000 rooms, is near completion within less than a year," Joop told reporters after inspecting the hotel with State Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports Hayono Isman.

Mulia Senayan, owned and managed by PT Mulia Intan Lestari, a subsidiary of the Mulia Group, a growing diversified business group with several publicly listed affiliated firms, has been built to accommodate participants of the upcoming 19th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games from Oct. 11 to Oct. 19.

National Sports Council chairman Wismoyo Arismunandar, SEA Games consortium executives Enggartiasto Lukita and Bambang Tri Hatmodjo also visited the hotel yesterday. The consortium is the party which arranges the controversial fund-raising through sticker sales for the SEA Games.

Joop said the hotel, located on a four-hectare lot next to the Senayan shooting range, would compete with other hotels after the event.

Hotel General Manager, Bruno M. Dedual, said that Mulia Senayan should maintain its market in the future.

"We expect a 65 percent occupancy rate within the first year," he said.

He expected the hotel's grand opening at the end of this year or early next year.

Hotel Mulia Senayan has 1,008 rooms and a wide range of facilities including a grand ballroom, meeting rooms, rental business space, an outdoor pool, jogging track and health center, restaurants and other international standard equipment and facilities.

Dedual said the hotel had recruited 2,000 personnel. (icn)