Developers have been making and delivering the promise of lagoons throughout North Texas.
But where can we actually hang out at the artificial beaches fronting these manmade water amenities, these oversized pools? Where can people dip their toes into the water this Memorial Day weekend?
The best option that comes to mind is Windsong Ranch in Prosper. But it’s only available to Windsong Ranch residents, and beyond that, lagoon enthusiasts will have to wait on developers to catch up.
The Tellus Group-developed Windsong Ranch community bills its lagoon as a five-acre “tropics-inspired amenity complete with clear Caribbean-like water and sandy beaches.”
Going by the website, the lagoon features white sandy beaches and clear turquoise waters, which is a healthy respite when compared with area lakes. The quarter-mile-wide lagoon holds 10 million gallons of water and is coated with a white lining to create a crystal-blue glow when there’s a blue sky.
“I thought I was not going to be impressed with it, coming from the Caribbean,” homeowner Selma Jimenez told CBS11 in 2019. “But when I came in, it was like, wow.”
The Windsong Ranch lagoon was installed by Miami-based Crystal Lagoons, which creates the technology for manmade lagoons. The lagoons use an environmental-friendly filtration and maintenance system that uses fewer chemicals and less energy than regular swimming pools.
Crystal Lagoons has its eye on Texas and in September said it has 70 lagoon projects in the state.
Crystal Lagoons has developed the Bellagio Lagoon for a Dallas-based Megatel Homes community in Forney. The completion date is scheduled for August 2022.
Most of the lagoon projects are under development. Megatel has two projects in the works in a rural setting: Weston (Venetian Lagoon), near McKinney in Collin County, and Forney (Bellagio Lagoon) in Kaufman County.
In Dallas proper, Megatel is building a lagoon at The Villages at SoHo Square, a $1 billion mixed-use project that includes a lagoon, thousands of residents, and retail and entertainment space near Singleton Boulevard and Borger Street in West Dallas.
In Rowlett, Sapphire Bay, which will include a Crystal Lagoon and a surf lagoon, is expected to be completed in 2023.
For an existing lagoon, you can try the Leonhardt Lagoon at Fair Park. It’s a traditional attraction without the floating cabanas or crystal-blue waters.
The Dallas-Fort Worth area has plenty of options if you need to get wet for Memorial Day. Grand Prairie has the Epic Waters Indoor Waterpark, and Omni Las Colinas has the Lakehouse Waterfront Lounge. Mansfield, Roanoke, Garland, and The Colony have Hawaiian Falls. Great Wolf Lodge in Grapevine has a water park. And don’t forget the old standards — NRH2O Family Water Park in North Richland Hills and Hurricane Harbor in Arlington.
If you must have a lagoon and not have to be a resident or pretend to be a resident, check out Lagoonfest Texas in Texas City. Lagoonfest Texas touts its crystal-blue water, white beaches, and floating cabanas.
It’s a four-hour drive down Interstate 45, not counting construction delays, so chances are you’ll be ready for a dip in a lagoon.
Correction: Centurion American is not developing the Collin Creek Mall redo with a lagoon. An earlier version of this post incorrectly reported that Centurion had a lagoon in its plans for the mall development.
