How This Beautiful Lady Jumps into What She Believes

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com - Jessica Aurelia Tji, 25, from the Margono Family (Gapura Prima Group), is now in the property business. She studied real estate and finance in the California State University, Northridge, the United States of America, and graduated in 2006. She became director of PT Sunindo Gapura Prima after the Solo Paragon superblock construction started in 2008.

Jessica first won the Miss Bangka Belitung 2007 pageant, then went on to the Miss Indonesia 2007 and was chosen as Miss Favorite. She also made it into the 10 finalists for the 2009 Miss Tourism.

Jessica comments on the Solo Paragon project, "Solo Paragon has high-end apartments, citywalk, and a lifestyle mall. It's a project for the tallest apartment building in Central Java. It will have 25 floors." She also mentioned that the lifestyle mall will have three floors plus basement parking, and the citywalk will have outdoor and alfresco dining concepts.

The whole complex is 4.1 hectare wide, and its concept to bring together apartments, hotel, citywalk, and lifestyle mall is the first in Central Java. The Solo Paragon Hotel will have 237 rooms and will be open sometime in mid 2010. The mall will open in the end of 2011 and already has Carrefour, XXI Cinema, Ace Hardware, and Index Furnishing queuing for space.

Jessica is confident that the project will be a big hit because it's on a very strategic location, at the heart of Solo, with access from Slamet Riyadi street, Yosodipuro street, and Dr. Cipto Mangunkusumo street. Solo is a charming city, near Semarang and Yogyakarta, and soon it will have a freeway to connect it directly with Semarang. Jessica emphasized the importance to increase the development of other cities besides Jakarta and its surroundings.

Was Jessica groomed to be in the property business? "I'm the first grandchild to be in the property business. But there was no pressure." She pointed out that she once even worked in a bank. Her father, Chandra Tambayong, runs Bandung Inti Graha, which is a property developer company in partnership with PT Sunindo Gapura Prima.

The developer group has had many projects in Indonesia, such as the Solo Novotel, Solo Ibis, Yogyakarta Phoenix Hotel, Semarang Novotel, Solo Best Western Premier, Solo Grand Mall, Solo Wholesale Center, The Jakarta Bellezza Apartment, The Bellagio Apartment in Mega Kuningan Jakarta, The Bandung Majesty Apartment, Bandung Grand Setiabudi Apartment, and also the Bandung Ciumbuleuit Gallery. (Robert Adhi Ksp/C17-09)