INDONESIA Tanjung Lesung Venice 2020, West Java

The Italian city of Venice, with its canals and gondoliers, its beauty and romance, is serving as the inspiration for a waterfront community in West Java, Indonesia.

The community is called Tanjung Lesung Venice 2020, and it aims to become the “Riviera of Indonesia.” On its website, TanjungLesungVenice2020.com, Tanjung Lesung Venice 2020 effusively describes itself as “iconic” (a stretch, seeing as it hasn’t yet been built), “one of the most unique cities in the world” (ditto), and -– hang on tight -– “a city so serene that it will change your view about life.”

I can already feel the bliss.

Tanjung Lesung Venice 2020 will spread over 1,250 acres along the western coast of West Java, roughly a three-hour drive from Jakarta. (A planned toll road is expected to shave some time off the trip.) As best I can determine, it’ll have 2,000 single-family houses and vacation villas, three hotels, a retail area, a water park, and an 18-hole golf course designed by Greg Norman.

And yes, its residents and visitors will travel within its boundaries by boats and gondolas, at least part of the time. Otherwise it wouldn’t be quite so serene.

Tanjung Lesung Venice 2020 is being developed by Oliver Tham, the principal of Thams Developments. Tham, who was born in Malaysia but is based in Australia, has likened West Java to the Gold Coast of Australia, and he’s a true believer when it comes to the area’s development prospects.

“There has never been a region in the world with such great potential,” his website says.

Tham plans to break ground on the golf course in 2011.

Tanjung Lesung Venice 2020 is the first major phase of a 3,125-acre resort destination called Tanjung Lesung, which will be developed over the next 10 to 20 years. Tanjung Lesung’s master plan has been created by the Jakarta-based Banten West Java Tourism Development Corporation, which has so far persuaded developers to build some houses, a hotel with a spa (the Tanjung Lesung Resort Hotel), a beach club, a school, a medical center, and other attractions.

Tjahjadi Rahardja, the director of the development corporation, is reportedly one of Tham’s partners, along with Setyono Djuandi Darmono, the principal of PT Jababeka TBK. The latter developed the Koto Jababeka planned community near Jakarta, which includes Jababeka Golf & Country Club.

The next phase of Tanjung Lesung, which will occupy another 1,250 acres, is to have 2,000 additional housing units, three more hotels, a marina village, an “education campus,” and a second 18-hole golf course. In phase three (also 1,250 acres), the development corporation wants private interests to build more houses and hotels, and possibly a theme park.

Tham says he expects to see “no less than six golf courses” in the area around Tanjung Lesung in the future. He also reports that he hopes to build golf communities in China, India, and Mexico someday, and that he’s decided that any golf courses he builds will be designed by Norman.