Lagoon News

One of Dallas' best suburbs will be home to the newest surfy lagoon

It's become the must-have residential amenity.

Courtesy rendering

A new residential project is in the works and it's coming with what has become the new must-have: a lagoon. Called Bellagio Lagoon, it's a development that Megatel Homes LLC plans to build in Forney. The project is budgeted at more than $800 million and will feature a manmade lagoon with white sand beaches.

A release describes it as one of the largest residential projects in Forney to date.

This is the same Forney that was just ranked second on "The Best Suburbs to Move to in 2021" by Homes.com, based on home price, education quality, and crime rates. Forney is one of the fastest-growing North Texas new home markets, especially since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Megatel co-founder Aaron Ipour says in a statement that lagoons have been a game-changer for their firm. "We have received tremendous feedback from potential homebuyers, which has greatly exceeded our expectations," Ipour says.

Lagoons up the amenity game with features such as a beach and waterfront sports such as kayaking and sand action.

Features at Bellagio Lagoon will include:

swim-up bar
Flowrider surfing simulator machine
dog park
playground
splash park

An amenity center will include a restaurant and bar, adult lounge, teen center, and children's indoor play area, plus a bowling area, arcade, and home design center.

Homes will range in size from 1,800 square feet to 4,200 square feet, priced from $349,000 to $600,000.

The first phase of homes at the community, which features approximately 400 homes, is expected to be completed by April 2022. The lagoon is expected to be completed by August 2022.

Ipour says that more than 60 percent of the community has already been sold and they expect it to be completely sold out by January 2022.

Dallas-Fort Worth has become obsessed with water features, from Epic Waters Indoor Waterpark, the recreational facility in Grand Prairie, to the Lakehouse Waterfront Lounge at the Omni Las Colinas to the big pool expansion at Choctaw Casino & Resort in Durant, Oklahoma.

Bellagio Lagoon is Megatel Homes' third lagoon community already in motion, including the Venetian Lagoon they're developing in McKinney and another in West Dallas. They have five more scheduled for presale this year, and 15 more lagoon communities in the works throughout Texas, Oklahoma, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, and South Carolina.

The company was founded in 2006 and has completed more than 100 developments.

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GP News

Grand Prairie expands to the south with new master-planned community

Rendering courtesy of Provident

Goodland Grand Prairie

The City of Grand Prairie is growing fast and expanding to make way for a new master-planned development south of US Highway 287 and along Tollway 360, in Ellis and Johnson counties.

The community development, called Goodland, is the result of Grand Prairie’s recent 1,500-acre annexation extending its southern border toward Mansfield. Overall, with the added land, Goodland will be a 5,000-acre site featuring 15,000 residences including townhomes, custom homes, and gated communities for 50,000 residents.

According to a release, it will be a “city within a city” and a 45-minute drive from Dallas-Fort Worth. Beyond housing, there will be shops, restaurants, schools, public and private event venues, regional sports fields and complexes, dance halls, churches, trail systems, city parks, ponds, and preserved green spaces.

“This is a significant step in our city’s development,” says Grand Prairie Mayor Ron Jensen in a statement. “Unlike many of our neighboring cities, we have the unique advantage of new development opportunities to our south that will drive the growth and prosperity of our city. We recognized the opportunity and took decisive action.”

Leading the development is Provident, a Dallas-based real estate firm that has created other master-planned communities across Dallas-Fort Worth, such as Preston Hollow Village and Hillstead in Collin County. Provident has plans to work nature into the space design with more than 1,600 acres of creek corridors and floodplain land.

Plans are ongoing for a centralized mixed-use walkable Town Center, complete with civic buildings and other commercial development. Further south on the property near Highway 67, light industrial uses and other private employment campuses are already underway, projects that will contribute vital tax dollars for city growth and future expansions.

“This level of placemaking is quite rare, and certainly not easy to execute, especially in a brand-new community," says Provident Managing Director Rylan Yowell in a statement. "We are committed to a long-term vision with a desire to be good stewards of the land."

A new four-lane road called Goodland Parkway will link Goodland to Grand Prairie at Tollway 360 and US Highway 287. It's set to open by December 2025.

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