Crystal Lagoons announces $1.7bn deals

Crystal Lagoons Corporation, the world’s first crystalline lagoon developer, signed deals worth $1.7 billion at last week’s Cityscape Global in Dubai to build new lagoons in Oman, Turkey and India.

The biggest of the three projects, worth $500 million, will be constructed near Muscat, Oman, in conjunction with Alargan, one of Kuwait’s leading developers. In addition to a seven hectare lagoon, the site will also feature three hotels, 400 villas and 800 apartments.

Separately, the company is planning a four hectare lagoon as the centrepiece of the $450m Olivian luxury development in Turkey comprising 2,000 villas and an 18-hole golf course.

The company ended a successful week at Cityscape Global by signing a $800m contract to build a six hectare lagoon in the Amby Valley, south of Mumbai, India.

“Like all our sites, these projects add value to the land as we are turning predominately desert locales into premium land. Everyone talks about location, location, location but that doesn’t apply to this initiative because these projects will change the real estate industry in every locale they are built,” said Fernando Fischmann creator and owner of Crystal Lagoons.

“This is the first time we have attended Cityscape since the company launched three years ago but it has been a worthwhile investment. We have signed some major deals, which will see us enter new markets and provide a boost to the local economies in each area.”

Crystal Lagoons recently announced its $5bn project in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, which will overtake the one in Chile to become the largest swimming crystalline lagoon in the world when it is inaugurated next year. Besides this 12 hectare lagoon, the project features another 10 giant lagoons that in total hold more than 100 hectares of crystal clear water in the middle of the desert. The first lagoon will be inaugurated in early 2011.

Despite the scale of the schemes, each one focuses on the environment, as they are filled with brackish water taken from shallow wells in the desert.

“In addition to the water source, all of our projects use 50 times less energy than normal water filtration systems and 100 times fewer chemicals than those used to treat tap water,” said Fischmann.

The company, founded in 2007 in Chile, has 50 projects underway across the Middle East and 150 completed or under construction around the world.

Other sites in the Mena include Amer Group’s Soma Bay, in Hurghada, a $1.2bn investment that will be operational in 2012, and the $250m Dead Sea Lagoon in Jordan, built in association with Sama Jordan.

The 4.5 hectare crystal clear lagoon is expected to attract a wider tourist variety and will be finished halfway through 2011.

In Dubai, Crystal Lagoons is close to completing the first stage of the ground breaking $1.2bn Dubai Lagoons project, located in Downtown Dubai. It will construct, maintain and provide technical support for initially a pilot lagoon, before the end of 2010, prior to taking responsibility for all of the main water features through the development.

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