Southshore Bay, a fast-growing community by Metro Places, has officially opened its lagoon, the first in Hillsborough County. The lagoon features crystal-blue waters, beaches and a wide range of activities, allowing residents to live a coastal lifestyle in the suburbs.
It is the second lagoon community opened by Metro Places and Metro Lagoons, that opened their first lagoon in 2018 in the Pasco County community of Epperson, the first in the country. The Southshore Bay lagoon stretches across five acres of water, which equates to four football fields in size, and is surrounded by features like an event pavilion and stage, bringing the total size of the lagoon area to 17 acres.
After a soft opening to residents in August 2021, the Southshore Bay lagoon opened for day pass ticket sales to the public on April 15. The lagoon is part of a wide array of amenities at Southshore Bay, where builders D.R. Horton and Medley by Lennar have sold more than 1,000 homes since the community opened in May 2019. The community offers everything from walking trails to dog parks to best-in-class ULTRAFi internet service.
The lagoon also brings jobs to Southern Hillsborough County. Metro Lagoons, which runs the lagoon’s day-to-day operations, expects to hire between 80 to 100 new full-time and seasonal employees within the next year.
The amenities at Southshore Bay lagoon include:
• An event pavilion and stage.
• Swim-up bar and food services.
• Cabana and tiki rentals.
• Paddle boarding and kayak rentals.
• Aquaglide floating adventure course and Superslide.
• ‘Gasparilla Island’ with a beach and splash pad.
• Family beach.
• A wide range of activities, like yoga, movie and trivia nights, live music performances and swim lessons.
In addition to the lagoons at Southshore Bay and Epperson, Metro Places and Metro Lagoons have two more lagoons under construction at Mirada in Pasco County and at Brightwater in Lee County. Both are slated to open at the end of 2022.
Looking ahead, Metro Places and Metro Lagoons have four additional lagoon communities in the planning phase as part of new communities being planned in Pasco, Manatee, Duval (near Jacksonville) and Osceola counties (near Orlando).
The lagoons’ one-of-a-kind technology is sustainable and safe for the environment, limiting the use of water and energy. Lagoons use 100 times fewer chemical products and 50 times less energy than traditional swimming pools, consume only two percent of the energy needed by conventional filtration systems, fully comply with the most stringent water quality standards and consume 30 times less water than a typical 18-hole golf course.
“The lagoon at Southshore Bay will redefine how people in South Hillsborough County experience coastal living,” said Vaike O’Grady, Metro Development Group’s vice president of marketing and communications. “We have brought the best of the coastline to Hillsborough County and are thrilled to provide a unique experience to our residents while contributing to the county’s vitality and economic growth.”
A Tampa-based company founded in 2003, Metro Development Group is the largest privately held residential developer in Florida. The company’s communities, under the Metro Places brand, are known for innovative technologies and high-impact amenities, like its extremely popular lagoons managed by Metro Lagoons. For more information, visit metrodevelopmentgroup.com.
