So you say you can’t bring the beach to Tallahassee? Don’t tell that to Crystal Lagoons.
Based on their website, Crystal Lagoons is an international company with offices around the world that has developed and patented a state-of-the-art technology which allows building and maintaining crystal clear lagoons worldwide at very low costs, offering idyllic beach lifestyle anywhere in the world.
And guess what? They just hired one of Florida’s most powerful lobbying groups, Ballard Partners, to represent their interests before the City of Tallahassee.
Lobbying records show Stephanie Grutman Zauder, with the Fort Lauderdale offices of Ballard Partners, is registered to represent Crystal Lagoons in a number of Florida cities which include Orlando, Jacksonville, and Tallahassee.
Also, state lobbying records show that Ballard Partners registered on February 4, 2016 to represent Crystal Lagoons before the Florida Legislative and Executive branches of government.
Chilean real estate developer Fernando Fischmann, a trained biochemist, developed a filtration and monitoring system that is the force behind Crystal Lagoons, now patented in approximately 160 countries.
Crystal Lagoons calls their product the world’s top amenity and boast they can “transform any destination into an idyllic beach paradise. Our unique concept and cutting edge technology allows building and maintaining unlimited sized crystal clear lagoons for practicing water sports and recreational activities, surrounded by picturesque sandy white beaches that can even be transformed into a winter wonderland in some locations, allowing year-round use.”
In 2014 Crystal Lagoons partnered with Metro Development Group to bring their lagoons to four planned communities in Hillsborough, Pasco and Lee counties.
One of the communities, Epperson Ranch in Pasco County, will be the first community in the U.S. to feature Crystal Lagoon.
Earlier this year a Crystal Lagoons project was unveiled in St. Johns County, near Jacksonville. Twin Creeks developer John Kinsey is contracting with Crystal Lagoons to build a 14-acre lagoon in a 3,000 home development.
Also, the City of Rowlett, Texas, just outside of Dallas, announced this past April that Crystal Lagoon would be a main focal point of a major development set to open in the next several years.
The project in Rowlett will be approximately 8 acres and hold 42 million gallons of water. The lagoon will be surrounded by a resort and marina, two condominium towers, luxury apartments, single-family homes and more than 1 million square feet of mixed-use retail, entertainment, and restaurant and office space.
Could Tallahassee be next? Stay tuned.
You can read more about Crystal Lagoons here.
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We need something like this as a City Park in Tallahassee. Off set cost with some high end town homes and shops around 2-3 sides of it but let there be deep water lake swimming as a City Park Beach! We who live her now pay 4.00 a person to use a City Pool already. Make this Deep Water Beach City Park with a Child’s Slide N Play area as well as a Deep Water Dive, Slide, and Swing tower. People will drive from all around to (shop)come here as well as pay a fee to use it. Lots of Palm Trees and beach style sound mix like a water park. I would to live on water and manage the park! Almost every day I am off I drive away from Tallahassee to a great beach and spend my money there.
This would be perfect at i10 and capital circle nw where they want to build a mall/subdivision
Of course, we’d already have that if Tallahassee would stop polluting Wakulla Springs. Dreadful.
They’re building a moat around Southwood.
It will probably be near a pricey neighborhood,where low to middle class people could not afford to use it.
So when do we get a mountain?
We already have one off of Apalachee parkway–Mt. Garbage.
Some here may know that back in the late 1960s, Walt Disney tried to purchase land in the NW Florida Panhandle for his new “Disney World” project. The only reason I’ve ever read for Walt’s plan going awry was that Ed Ball, president of St. Joe Company at the time, deliberately kept Walt waiting for 15 minutes after their meeting was supposed to begin. Of course you don’t keep Mr. Disney waiting, so Walt declared any potential deal was off and promptly left NW Florida, pursuing his Plan B and buying land in the Orlando area. Of course we’re all aware of how that went.
I’ve always said that if Tallahassee had a beach similar to Destin or PCB, it would be a major destination and sought-after Florida city to live. Like it or not, we may get to see some semblance of that in the not-so-distant future. And if Tallahassee for it’s own reasons spurns Crystal Lagoons, I’m certain the St. Joe Company with thousands of inland acres of land they want to develop, will be more than happy to hear what Crystal Lagoons may have to say.
Uh huh. Really? And thus and thus, so forth and so on. I agree; follow the money bunny on this one!
I bet they are not looking to develop it on the south side…. Any takers???
Southwood going to wakulla
It probably has some degree of salinity like a salt water pool.
So, like, practically every natural body of surface water in Leon County is thick with algae, but someone’s going to build a big, fake lagoon that stays beautiful forever?
We do have beaches nor far away. Not sure this is a profit winner.
Sinkhole bait…
Yep, a sinkhole trap
The question becomes, who has enough land to develop and be able to support the infrastructure.
Is Mr. Moore seeking to redevelop I-10 / Mahan (again) ??
Is the new Orchard Pond Expressway the prelude to this kind of development?
Is Weelaunee Plantation going to become Weelaunee Lagoon?
Is Southwood Plantation and / or St. Joe going to become a beach club resort?
And then there is the new Tallahassee Mall development that has questionable sustainability, but would be a prime location for a convention and event resort destination. Maybe then the old Ramada, Julie’s Place, the old Shoney’s and that burned out motel up around I-10 & North Monroe could become something more than one big transient camp.
It will be interesting to follow the money on this one!
That 42 million gallons of water? From the aquifer? That’s where the lakes in Killearn Estates came from so it’s doable. Water Management District might have some thing to say.
How about repurpose Lake Jackson?
the lakes in killearn are 99% surface water runoff supplied no wells operational in 30 years but I have plenty of reservations with this idea