Westin, Wisma Kartika sign deal on new luxury hotel
Westin, Wisma Kartika sign deal on new luxury hotel
JAKARTA (JP): Another luxury hotel will soon rise in the prime business area of Jl. Thamrin, Central Jakarta, increasing the already fierce competition between five-star hotels.
The new hotel, to be constructed on the site of the 25-year- old Hotel Kartika Plaza, will be managed by Westin Hotels and Resorts, a hotel management firm based in the United States, which signed an agreement yesterday with the hotel owner PT Wisma Kartika.
Wisma Kartika's president, Fredy Gozali, said that the construction of the planned 39-story hotel, to be called the Westin Jakarta, would begin after the Kartika Plaza building is destroyed later this year.
Wisma Kartika was previously owned by the Federation Cooperative of the Armed Forces (Inkopad). Gozali of PT Luminary Prima, a Jakarta-based private company, acquired a 60-percent share in Wisma Kartika.
"The shares acquisition, completed in January 1994, worth Rp 100 billion ($43 million)," said Inkopad's chairman Brig. Gen. Laurentius Mulyanto, who is the chief commissioner of Wisma Kartika.
The four-star Kartika Plaza ceased operations last October. The plan to rebuild the hotel caused temporary unrest among the hotel's employees due to dismissals and unsatisfactory compensations.
The problem was solved after the employees agreed on a compensation of Rp 7 million ($3,000) for those having worked at least five years at a salary of Rp 166,000 ($71) per month while the highest compensation reached Rp 170 million (approximately $72,000).
Gozali said yesterday that the new 500-room hotel is expected to be completed in 1998.
"The Westin Jakarta will be built at a cost of over US$200 million, 40 percent of which will be from Wisma Kartika equity and the remaining 60 percent from commercial loans," he said, adding that he expected to see a return on the company's investment within 10 years.
In addition to the rooms, with a minimum size of 42-square- meters, the planned hotel will offer meeting rooms for 20 persons to 1,400 persons, a 2,000-square-meter business service center, recreational facilities and an indoor tennis court.
Westin's chairman and chief executive officer, Jeurgen Bartels, said the hotel will be the second property in Indonesia managed by his company after the Westin Surabaya, which is scheduled to open in May.
"We target 70 percent-80 percent occupancy rates for the Jakarta Westin," he said, adding that Westin's marketing and promotion campaign worldwide would help reach the target.
When asked about Westin's next plan in Indonesia, he said: "We're very ambitious to expand into our next target, Bali."
Westin, founded in 1930, currently runs 80 hotels and resorts in 18 nations with additional projects currently under construction in Bangkok, Puerto Rico, Philadelphia and Seattle.
If it is operating by 1998 the Westin Jakarta will compete with existing five-star hotels in the city including Shangri-la, Grand Hyatt and Regent.
The planned hotel, situated on a 13,570-square-meter plot, will also compete with several potential rivals now under construction like Conrad, Marriott and Kempinski -- all located on Jl. Sudirman. (icn)