Developer opens SWFL lagoon-centric community to big crowds

Brightwater Lagoon offers a sandy beach with cabanas, six acres of crystal clear water, a swim-up bar, water slides and mini golf.

Yet Brightwater, the north Fort Myers master-planned community east of Interstate 75, is more than 25 miles from Fort Myers Beach.

The man-made lagoon, which opened this year, is the key attraction at the 700-acre plus community that will include up to 1,500 houses. Some 400 homes, starting in the $300,000-plus range, are built so far.

New York City residents Benito and Ilene Cruz say they fell in love with Brightwater. They especially like how the lagoon is a social hub that brings residents together.

In July, the couple bought a 4-bedroom, 3-bath home built by Lennar. Benito Cruz, 51, says he’s able to sit at the lagoon’s bar and watch the couple’s children, Ryan, 13, and Vivian, 9, play in the water.

“It’s a lot more relaxed atmosphere,” says Cruz, a Bronx detective, who expects to soon retire.

Photo by Jake Molina

For some, the lagoon is more attractive than a natural beach. Swimmers won’t run into sharks, stingrays or jellyfish. The water area, with a lined bottom and depth of up to 12 feet, is treated with chlorine to keep it crystal clear.

And Brightwater is far enough from the gulf that homeowners, for the most part, aren’t threatened by flooding from hurricanes.

Nightly entertainment at the lagoon, also open to the public for a fee, varies from live music to UFC matches on a giant outdoor screen.

Trend setters

Brightwater is the fourth lagoon Tampa-based Metro Development Group has opened in seven years. The developer also has multiple other locations in the planning stages.

The company, through its MetroLagoons, opened its first, Epperson Lagoon, in 2018 in Wesley Chapel in Pasco County. 

For decades, man-made lagoons, including lazy rivers and waterfalls, have been incorporated into larger hotels and resorts. But from Texas to Florida, lagoons are now part of a trend in master-planned communities.

Metro’s success in the Sunshine state has led the company to consider national expansion to Texas and the Carolinas, says Lisa Gibbings, Metro Development’s vice president of marketing/communications. No deals outside of Florida have been solidified yet, she adds. 

“Our lagoons have redefined what it means to live in a master-planned community,” says Gibbings.

Courtesy image

Metro, founded in 2003, has several other communities with man-made lagoons either open or coming soon in the region and across Florida, including: 

• Seaire, with a four-acre lagoon, in north Manatee County in Parrish, expected to open next year. Construction of the 3,000-home community began last year.
• Angeline, one of Metro’s larger master-planned communities at 6,200 acres, is planned for Land O’ Lakes in conjunction with the 775-acre Moffitt Cancer Center campus named Speros. Angeline isn’t expected to open for several years, Gibbings says. 
• Southshore Bay Lagoon, a five-acre lagoon, opened in 2022 in Wimauma, Hillsborough County
• Mirada Lagoon, Florida’s largest lagoon at 15 acres, opened in 2023 in San Antonio, Pasco County
• Diamond Springs, a nearly three-acre lagoon and adjacent 2,500 homes is planned for Jacksonville
• Metro bought 900 acres in Weeki Wachee in Hernando County, earlier this year to build a lagoon centric community named Sandal Key. It paid $6 million for the site, Hernando County property records show. 

Water world

While master-planned communities take decades to plan, permit and build, a lagoon takes nearly two years to build, Gibbings says.

MetroLagoons partners with Miami-based Crystal Lagoons to build the large bodies of water.

Crystal Lagoons says its patented technology is environmentally friendly. It “consumes 33 times less water than an 18-hole golf course and 40% less water than a park the same size,” according to Crystal Lagoon’s website.