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)