Historic shopping center Sarinah to reopen in March after major renovation

The Sarinah building in Central Jakarta, the first and oldest shopping center in Indonesia, is slated for a reopening this coming March.

The building has been undergoing a major renovation since mid-2020, which prompted the closure of the country’s first McDonald’s outlet, only for its management to be fined due to a mass gathering of a farewell crowd amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sarinah CEO Fetty Kwartati said on Wednesday that the renovation itself is all but complete, with the project now entering its finishing touches phase. 

According to Fetty, the new Sarinah building will be drastically different compared to the old department store-only format, featuring new facilities such as an F&B area, a digital business area, and a culture section. The building will continue to house offices as well.

Located at the intersection of KH Wahid Hasyim street and Jakarta’s main commercial thoroughfare M.H. Thamrin road, Sarinah was inaugurated in August 1966 as Indonesia’s first modern department store. Sarinah, a state-owned enterprise that was established in 1962, was initiated by President Sukarno, who named it after his childhood nanny.

Following the reopening, Sarinah aims to be the center of trade and promotion for locally produced goods, just like what Sukarno mandated for the shopping center.