The Lagoons is a real-estate development that is under construction in Dubai

Dubai

Dubai is a city and emirate in the United Arab Emirates . The emirate is located south of the Persian Gulf on the Arabian Peninsula and has the largest population with the second-largest land territory by area of all the emirates, after Abu Dhabi...

, United Arab Emirates

United Arab Emirates

The United Arab Emirates, abbreviated as the UAE, or shortened to "the Emirates", is a state situated in the southeast of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia on the Persian Gulf, bordering Oman, and Saudi Arabia, and sharing sea borders with Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and Iran.The UAE is a...

 and is situated along Dubai Creek

Dubai Creek

Dubai Creek or Khor Dubai is a saltwater creek located in Dubai, United Arab Emirates . It ends at Ras Al Khor Wildlife Sanctuary. Some sources say that the creek extended as far inland as Al Ain, and that the Ancient Greeks called it River Zara. Historically, the creek divided the city into two...

, near Ras Al Khor Road.

Purpose

The Lagoons area would have covered an area of 70 million square feet (6.5 million square meters). Seven artificial islands, which would each have been linked to each other, consisting of residential apartments, shopping malls, office buildings, five-star hotels, resorts, a museum, marinas, and Dubai's first opera house

Opera house

An opera house is a theatre building used for opera performances that consists of a stage, an orchestra pit, audience seating, and backstage facilities for costumes and set building...

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The project's cost was estimated to be around AED 80 billion (US$ 25 billion). It was being developed by the real estate firm Sama Dubai

Sama Dubai

Sama Dubai is a member company and subsidiary of Dubai Holding, a holding company set up by the government of Dubai. Sama Dubai was created as a company with wider responsibility and mandate than its previous predecessor . Sama Dubai is practically the international property arm of Dubai Holding...

, and managed by Sama ECH

Sama ECH

Sama-ECH is a joint venture company formed between Sama Dubai and EC Harris LLP tasked with the vision of creating a world class project management organisation capable of delivering some of the world’s most exciting construction projects in terms of scale, complexity and diversity .-External...

. Groundbreaking and soil-testing began in 2008, but the project, originally scheduled for completion in stages between 2011 and 2012, was subsequently suspended.

Al Dana

The business heartland of Dubai, Al Dana would have been defined by the presence of blue chip businesses and executive style living.

Al Sedaifa

Al Sedaifa was to be a high fashion district home to numerous clothing boutiques, jewellery stores and interior design firms.

Al Hassabi

Al Hassabi would have included a mixture of residential complexes and parkland's with many waterways and healthy living features such as walkways and cycling paths.

Al Naama

Al Naama was planned to be a 'Health and Mind' district with health clubs, gyms and spas as well as museums and art centers.

Dubai Towers Dubai

The Lagoons would have also showcased the Dubai Towers Dubai skyscraper

Skyscraper

A skyscraper is a tall, continuously habitable building of many stories, often designed for office and commercial use. There is no official definition or height above which a building may be classified as a skyscraper...

 complex. This development was to include four mixed-use, state of the art luxury towers. It is believed that the tallest tower would have reach a height of 400 metres while two of the others would have exceeded 300 metres. These towers were supposed to be the grand centre of the mega-project.

Dubai Opera House

The Dubai Opera House was to be a state-of-the-art cultural centre in The Lagoons, accommodating an opera house with a 2,500 seating capacity, an 800-seat playhouse, a 5000 square metres (53,819.6 sq ft) arts gallery, a performing arts school, and a '6-star' themed hotel. It would have been the only opera house in the Persian Gulf region

Arab states of the Persian Gulf

"Arab states of the Persian Gulf" or "Arab Persian Gulf states" or "Persian Gulf Arab states" or "Arabic Persian Gulf states" or "Arab States of The Gulf", are terms that refer to the six Arab states of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman, bordering the Persian Gulf....

.

Project Delay

After initially targeting completion of some parts of Sedaifa in December 2008, there have been extensive delays. There was a reported arrest of four key members of senior management, including the project's CEO, on allegations of bribery and mistrust. The showroom was later completed, but otherwise work was discontinued, and there was public discussion of restructuring the project together with Sama Dubai, Tatweer and Dubai Properties, all subsidiaries of Dubai Holdings, into Emaar Properties

Emaar Properties

Emaar Properties , based in the United Arab Emirates, is a Public Joint Stock Company listed on the Dubai Financial Market. Established in 1997 with an initial paid-up capital of AED 1 bn, Emaar Properties is currently the Persian Gulf region's largest land and real estate developer...

, a private company partially held by the government of Dubai. An update was expected early in 2010, and it was later announced that the project was split into two phases, with phase one underway at the end of 2010 with an announced expected completion date of June 2011.