Crown Group plans $1 billion vertical waterfront city for Jakarta

The Australian developer Crown Group has unveiled its vision to build a new luxury waterfront residential precinct on the Jakarta waterfront.

The project will be the first of its kind for Indonesia, with 2000 luxury homes and its own marina, beach club and dining precinct at Ancol. 

Crown Group, based in Sydney, signed an agreement with Indonesian government organisation PT Pembangunan Jaya Ancol in early 2019 to create the vertical city.

The plans will be presented to the Indonesian government for approval later this year, with it set to launch to market in 2020. 

Real estate and tourism developer PT Pembangunan Jaya Ancol Tbk is best known for developing Ancol Bay in the 1980s, the largest tourist park in South East Asia which attracts 300,000 visitors a year.

It boasts its own championship golf course, the 24-hour Ancol Dreamland amusement park, SeaWorld, various hotels, open-air markets and a marina. 

Chairman and Group CEO Iwan Sunito said the first Crown Group project in Indonesia would herald a new era for waterfront living in the island nation and set a new benchmark for residential property development in Indonesia.  

“The vision is to create a landmark that will be the jewel of Indonesia and a marina that the world hasn’t seen before,” he said.

“We will be the first to bring waterfront living to Jakarta, inspired by the world’s best – Sydney’s famous Darling Harbour and Circular Quay – through the development of vertical mixed-use residences.”  

The joint venture will see a series of towers created on a 4.7 hectare site, with a luxury waterfront living concept designed by Japanese-Australian architect Koichi Takada, based in Sydney. 

The project will bring a new level of luxury to the area, with spectacular shared facilities for residents and the public to enjoy, including a yacht club, waterfront promenade and beach club-style dining.  

The A$1 billion development will offer 9000 square metres of retail boutiques, restaurants and bars and a commercial precinct.

There will also be a network of outdoor terraces, boulevards and jogging tracks.  

The first stage is expected to be completed in 2024 with 800 apartments, a gym, spa and infinity swimming pool, and a further 1500 apartments in the second stage.  

Sunito said it will be a place where communities can come together.

"We want to create a space where people can walk through and experience the galleries, the boutiques, the restaurants and the waterfront.” 

Architect Koichi Takada said he had drawn on elements of Indonesia’s natural environment and cultural heritage to create a contemporary development with a connection back to Indonesian culture.

“The site is on the edge of the land, facing the Java Sea,” Takada said.

“As you land in Jakarta you see the Ancol development with its collection of eight high rises that almost appear like an Indonesian archipelago, rising out of the sea. So, we looked to Raja Ampat Papua, the Indonesian archipelago off the coast of West Papua also known as the Four Kings, for inspiration, and the Green Canyon in Pangandaran Beach of islands.  

“The rice terraces in Bali are culturally specific to the Indonesian landscape and we wanted to celebrate that. Jakarta is known for its heavy traffic and traffic jams, but the flow of traffic is organic, it moves like a school of fish in this energetic city.  

“Our design has parts that face the water, parts that face back to the city of Jakarta, then in between you have cascading terraced apartments and garden features, with public and residential amenities in between.

"This will give it a laneway feel, almost like going through a canyon, or the islands of the archipelago.

"It’s quite a dramatic and emotionally fluid experience to go through it.

"That to me is the character and experience of Jakarta – you go through all these traditional villages and houses in between the sky scrapers, and experience the city on a human scale, in all these in between spaces. We wanted to capture that experience.”  

President Director of PT. Pembangunan Jaya Ancol, C. Paul Tehusijarana said he was looking forward to bringing a new element of residential living to the Ancol waterfront.  

"Ancol has the advantage of being located next to the beach, plus we can collaborate with Crown Group who are experts in their field. We see the mixed-use concept combined with a world-class waterfront lifestyle can add a new sense of value to the Ancol area,” he said.