Sahid Jaya completes refurbishment

JAKARTA (JP): Sahid Jaya Hotel & Tower, a subsidiary of the Sahid Group, will be officially reintroduced on Thursday after the completion of the bulk of its extensive renovation work.

"The renovation of the 752-room hotel will be fully completed by the end of this year," Sahid chairman Sukamdani Sahid Gitosardjono told a press conference here yesterday.

He said that the renovation, costing Rp 40 billion (US$18.54 million), included both the hotel's interior and exterior designs and the construction of additional facilities.

"We expect the refurbishment will elevate the class of our hotel to the category of a five-star plus hotel," he said.

According to Sukamdani, several facilities will soon be constructed including a ballroom called Puri Agung II, a spacious parking lot and two restaurants.

"The renovation is actually part of the construction of Sahid City Super Bloc which will be completed in 1998," he said.

He said that the super bloc nearby the hotel commands a 5.7- hectare area on Jl. Sudirman and Jl. K.H. Mas Mansyur.

The super bloc will include office buildings, a new five-star hotel named Grand Sahid Plaza and apartment towers.

"The construction of the new 500-room hotel and office buildings will cost about $200 million," he said.

Sukamdani, however, declined to give further details as to how he would finance the expansion projects, but he claimed that the occupancy rate of Sahid Jaya is currently 86 percent.

There are currently 12 hotels owned and managed by Sahid, including those in Jakarta, Surakarta, Central Java, Yogyakarta, Bali, Surabaya, East Java, Lampung and Manado, North Sulawesi and Sorong, Irian Jaya.

Management

Sukamdani said that a total of 15 star-rated hotels with 3,195 rooms in 15 provinces will be owned and managed by the group within the next four years.

"We will also expand and renovate several hotels, including those in Bali and Surakarta," he said.

"I set up Sahid International Hotel Management and Consultant Corporation on May 27 to manage the overseas expansion of the Sahid Hotel chain in the country," he said.

"Why can't a domestic company manage hotels overseas?" he asked rhetorically.

He said that Sahid will expand its sales offices in Singapore, the Netherlands, Germany, the United States and Japan, as representatives of the new company.(icn)