The Dubai developer Deyaar has agreed to swap land from the site of its former Dh1 billion Flamingo Creek project in The Lagoons master development for other new plots at an undisclosed location.
The company’s board of directors passed a resolution last week approving the terms of a settlement with the company responsible for the master development, The Lagoons LLC.
A spokesperson for Deyaar yesterday said that its board “has approved a decision to execute a settlement to replace the plots that Deyaar owned in The Lagoons for other plots in Dubai which it intends to develop”.
The company declined to say where the new plots are based, saying that a final decision “remains under the consideration of various parties”.
“The move is a commercial decision taken in the best interest of Deyaar to acquire plots with strong development potential,” the spokesperson said.
Deyaar initially bought land in The Lagoons before the 2008 financial crisis when it paid Dh372 million for a site that had previously been owned by the National Bonds Corporation. It had planned to build a Dh1bn development containing 244 apartments and townhomes. However, it became frustrated at the lack of infrastructure development at the site and in August 2010 it said that it was planning to abandon the project.
The Lagoons had been launched by Sama Dubai (a former development arm of Dubai Holding) in 2006 and was initially planned as seven artificial islands in Dubai Creek. The project never got off the ground and in 2013 it was relaunched as a joint venture between Dubai Holding and Emaar Properties. Part of the site now forms Emaar’s Dubai Creek Harbour project – a new masterplanned community that will be two-and-a-half times bigger than Downtown Dubai with a signature architectural tower designed by Santiago Calatrava that will be at least 100 metres taller than Burj Khalifa.
A groundbreaking ceremony for the tower took place in October.
Since announcing that it had reached a proposed settlement deal with The Lagoons on December 29, Deyaar’s shares have climbed by 6 per cent to close at 65.8 fils on Thursday.
mfahy@thenational.ae
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