Traders urge city govt to manage Aldiron plaza
Traders urge city govt to manage Aldiron plaza
JAKARTA (JP): Traders in Aldiron plaza in the Blok M shopping
complex asked yesterday the city administration to manage the
building because the current management failed to accommodate
their needs.
The city must take over management of the building, which is
on municipality land, because manager PT Aldiron Hero had let the
building become run down, said the plaza's traders' association
spokesman Azwar Wahid.
PT Aldiron's management contract for the building expires in
2001.
The representatives were received by city officials.
Meanwhile, some 50 small businesses from the plaza protested
at city hall about the electricity being cut off last Monday.
"This is the third time our electricity been cut off in the
past two years because our building's manager did not pay the
electricity bill," he said.
Although the traders have paid their Rp 12,000 per square
meter monthly maintenance fee up to last October, they found PT
Aldiron Hero still owed the electricity company Rp 120 million
(US$50,654) from three months unpaid electrical bills, Azwar
said.
The cut off cost most small traders more than 70 percent of
their daily income.
Azwar who owns a jewelry store on the first floor said he lost
millions of rupiah a day when the power was off.
A small printing company owner, Cytimba, said he lost between
Rp 1 million and Rp 2 million a day.
Tailors who occupy the second floor said they had to pay each
apprentice Rp 20,000 a day even when there was no income.
PT Aldiron Hero's general manager, Ariyanto, said that since a
fire gutted the building's third and fourth floors in May 1994,
the company had lost money on the building.
Ariyanto said many shop owners did not pay their monthly dues
and some left after not paying for a year.
"The amount of money we get from managing the building did not
pay the maintenance costs," he said, adding that the fire made it
hard to renovate the third and fourth floors.
Only 168 traders remain of the 400 who occupied the building
when it opened in 1979.
The company planned to raise the monthly dues to Rp 15,000 per
square meter to fund renovations but traders refused this,
Ariyanto said.
Traders said they would not mind paying extra if the company
improved facilities. The traders said services which needed
improvement included the cleaning, security and air-conditioning.
Azwar said more toilets needed to be built because the
building had only one toilet.
"If the management cannot not provide us with all the things
that he promised to do, we strongly urge the city to take over
the building now," he said. (02)