Summarecon to build new high-rise building

JAKARTA (JP): A business and entertainment center will highlight Kelapa Gading Permai's 20-hectare town center, scheduled for completion by 1999.

The six-story building, the Sentral Promenad, will soon be developed by PT Sentral Summarecon Sukses, a joint venture of the Summarecon Group and businessman Sudwikatmono.

Sudwikatmono and senior executive of the Summarecon Group, Soetjipto Nagaria, signed yesterday an agreement on the establishment of the new joint venture.

The Sentral Promenad, the second stage of the satellite center's town center, will consist of street-stall food vendors, restaurants, entertainment centers, an ice skating rink, exhibition hall and retail space.

Sentral Summarecon, the ongoing first stage of the town center, features a shopping mall, mosque, food center and marketplace.

Soetjipto, the president of Sentral Summarecon Sukses, said on Wednesday that more than US$600 million would be spent for the development of Sentral Summarecon, of which $100 million would be earmarked to build Sentral Promenad.

He said Sentral Summarecon would be completed in the next five to six years.

Construction on Sentral Promenad is scheduled to begin at the end of this year or beginning of next year, with a completion timetable of one year.

"Of course, these developments will also depend on the country's economic situation, which is why we will do it in several stages," he said.

He said the next stage of the town center's development would consist of an apartment building, hotel and business district, but did not disclose when it would begin.

Sudwikatmono, a close relative of President Soeharto, said he had a 10 percent stake in the Sentral Promenad project.

He said he would seek offshore loans for the project following the recent decision of Bank Indonesia, the central bank, to ban new loans for land acquisition and development.

"The lenders will most likely be a syndication of banks. We will look for ones with low interest rates," he said. He refused to discuss possible participating banks.

BI issued a decree last week banning new loans for land acquisition and development by property companies. The ruling, which exempts cheap housing projects, is believed to be an effort to control the rapid rise in lending to the property sector.

Sudwikatmono acknowledged the Sentral Promenad project had not received the development permit from the Jakarta administration.

He was confident a permit would soon be issued because the project's site plan confirmed it did not overlap with public space and areas designated for other purposes.

PT Summarecon Agung has developed Kelapa Gading Permai for the past 20 years. It covers 500 hectares and now includes 17,000 houses, shop-houses and office-houses. The complex also has 70 branches of various banks, six local schools, two international schools and hundreds of restaurants. (pwn)