Sarinah Building () is a 74-metre tall 15-floor department store in Gondangdia, Menteng,

Central Jakarta Central Jakarta (, ), abbreviated as Jakpus, is one of the five Cities of Indonesia, administrative cities () and ''de facto'' Capital City of the Jakarta, Special Capital Region of Jakarta. It had 902,973 inhabitants according to the 2010 census ...

, Indonesia. It was the first skyscraper to be built in Jakarta. Sarinah is located at the intersection of Jalan Kyai Haji Wahid Hasyim and Jalan M. H. Thamrin. It was

Jakarta Jakarta (; , Betawi language, Betawi: ''Jakartè''), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta (; ''DKI Jakarta'') and formerly known as Batavia, Dutch East Indies, Batavia until 1949, is the capital and largest city of Indonesia and ...

's first modern department store, famous for having Indonesia's first escalators (installed by

Hitachi () is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1910 and headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo. The company is active in various industries, including digital systems, power and renewable ener ...

), for being air-conditioned and for having electronic cash registers.

History

PT Department Store Indonesia "Sarinah" (former company name of Sarinah) first piled the foundation of Sarinah building on 23 April 1963. The building was built by

Obayashi Corporation is one of five major Japanese construction companies along with Shimizu Corporation, Takenaka Corporation, Kajima Corporation, and Taisei Corporation. It is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange and is one of the Nikkei 225 corporations. Its h ...

and state-owned construction company Adhi Karya, using Japanese war reparation funds. The building was handed over to Sarinah on 22 December 1965, coinciding with Mother's Day, and was inaugurated on 15 August 1966. In the 1990s, after leasing out some of its space to

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation, doing business as McDonald's, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain. As of 2024, it is the second largest by number of locations in the world, behind only the Chinese ch ...

(its first branch in Indonesia) and

Hard Rock Cafe Hard Rock Cafe, Inc. is a chain of theme restaurant, theme bar-restaurants, memorabilia shops, casinos, hotels and museums founded in 1971 by Isaac Tigrett and Peter Morton in London. In 1979, the cafe began covering its walls with rock and roll ...

(which later moved to

Pacific Place Jakarta The Pacific Place Jakarta is a multipurpose building located in the Sudirman Central Business District, South Jakarta, Indonesia. The building is divided into three different sections: the six-floor Pacific Place Mall, the One Pacific Place Of ...

), Sarinah managed to rejuvenate itself as a popular place for young people.

Expansion

Two forty-one story towers are planned to be built in the area to complement the existing shopping center. The new towers will house high end restaurants; offices; and venues for meetings, conferences, and exhibition halls. The existing building will undergo major renovations to restore the originality of the building. The expansion project is expected to start by July 2020 and is projected to be completed in its entirety by mid-2022. For the renovation to be carried out on the existing building, the management ordered all tenants of to close in a 30 April 2020 memo. Notably the closing of the first

in Indonesia at the Sarinah location on 10 May 2020 attracted a considerable crowd and legal rebuke for violation of

social distancing In public health, social distancing, also called physical distancing, (NB. Regula Venske is president of the PEN Centre Germany.) is a set of non-pharmaceutical interventions or measures intended to prevent the spread of a contagious dise ...

laws in effect for the endless COVID-19 pandemic at the time. After completion of renovations on the existing building, it was opened to public on 22 March, 2022.

2016 terrorist incident

On 14 January 2016, multiple explosions and gunfire occurred near Sarinah. The

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant The Islamic State (IS), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and Daesh, is a transnational Salafi jihadist organization and unrecognized quasi-state. IS occupied signi ...

(ISIL) claimed responsibility. 8 people were killed, 4 civilians and all 4 attackers.

References

Cited works

* * * {{Shopping Center in Jakarta InJourney Central Jakarta Shopping malls in Jakarta Skyscrapers in Indonesia Buildings and structures in Jakarta