One Year After: Meikarta Mega Project Stranded From Pursuing Big Dream
Accelerating the Remaining Project
Across from Meikarta Marketing Gallery in Maxxbox, Cikarang, there are six Meikarta Central Business District (CBD) apartment towers that appear almost complete and are still under construction. The towers are Irvine Suites, Westwood Suites, Pasadena Suites, Burbank Suites, Glendale Park, and Newport Park.
The construction of the Meikarta CBD apartment has reached tens of floors with each floor lined with walls. Several cranes stood towering on the top floor, which continued the construction process.
Meikarta CBD is a new name for the 19.5 ha of Orange County project launched by Lippo Cikarang in 2014. The project changed its name to the Meikarta CBD after Lippo touting the 500 ha Meikarta megaproject.
Meikarta CBD is an upper middle class apartment with at a minimum price of Rp 700 million to billions of rupiah. Meanwhile, the lower middle class apartment is offered with a price starting at Rp 127 million.
The Meikarta CBD project has officially carried out a topping off for two towers on 29 October 2017. It was attended by Lippo Group CEO James T. Riady and Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs Luhut B. Pandjaitan.
The licensing process for the Meikarta CBD or Orange County was also different from the Meikarta project that have obtained a location permit for 84.3 ha of land. Orange County had obtained building permit (IMB) No. 503/096/B/BPMPPT before the topping off event took place.
In early September, the Meikarta developer had carried out physical handover of 863 apartment units at Irvine Suites and Westwood Suites. In the next stage, 28 apartment towers with a height of 32 to 42 floors will be handed over to buyers at the end of February 2019.
A total of 28 towers were built 200 meters from the Meikarta CBD. The construction site for the 28 towers is called District 1 Meikarta.
When doing on-site observation, katadata.co.id saw the 28 towers are still in the form of concrete piles without walls. The construction only reaches the sixth to eleventh floors.
Thousands of workers continue to do the construction work. A worker, Ardi, said they work from 6:00 AM to 10:00 PM. From this time frame, he gets two break times at 12.00 and 17.30 WIB. “I started working again after Isha time until 10:00 PM.”
Another worker, Jeki, said the construction work is being accelerated and the developer continues to add workers. “It is rising. There are many of new workers, maybe tens.”
Apart from the Meikarta CBD apartment, the development process is allegedly running without any building permit (IMB). Bekasi District Government has just issued building permits for 24 Meikarta apartments over the location permit of 84.3 ha of land, ahead of the KPK’s sting operation.
The building permits were planned to be given to 54 towers, but the provision of permits for 29 other towers had been halted after the alleged bribery in obtaining the permit was revealed. According to the Head of Investment Capital and Licensing at Bekasi Regency One-Stop Integrated Services Agency (DPMPTSP) Muhammad Said, the building permits for 29 towers are now waiting to be signed.
However, the Head of Bekasi Regency Investment Capital and One-Stop Integrated Services Agency (DPMPTSP) Dewi Tisnawati became one of the suspects in the alleged bribery case of Meikarta’s permit. “It is waiting for signature from the head of the agency [Dewi], but there is a problem so that it automatically stops,” he said.
The attorney of Mahkota Sentosa Utama (MSU) Denny Indrayana ensures the Meikarta construction will continue to run. According to him, the current legal process carried out by the KPK is a separate matter, and different from the Meikarta development process.
Therefore, PT MSU claimed to be responsible for the construction of the project. In addition, the company will try to fulfil other company obligations related to the Meikarta development.
“So that all the processes run properly and smoothly in accordance with the applicable legal provisions,” Denny said in a press statement on Thursday (10/18).
