South of Riverview, where cattle pastures and strawberry fields once defined the landscape, Wimauma is turning into Hillsborough County's newest suburban frontier. Master-planned communities like Berry Bay and Balm Grove are pulling in national homebuilders by the handful, betting that the same growth wave that transformed Riverview a decade ago is now cresting over this once-quiet farm town roughly 30 miles from downtown Tampa.
Berry Bay, a 1,100-acre master-planned community, is currently slated to build out to 3,200 single-family homes, according to the Tampa Bay Business Journal. The development has added Perry Homes and Ashton Woods to a builder lineup that already included M/I Homes and D.R. Horton, offering everything from entry-level layouts to larger, design-forward floor plans aimed at growing families and move-up buyers. Jeff Hills, president of developer Eisenhower Property Group, said the same factors that fueled Riverview's transformation are now gaining momentum in Wimauma.
Perry Homes picked Berry Bay as one of its first projects in the Tampa Bay area, and division president Garrison Taska said the community combines quality homes, thoughtful planning and amenities that support everyday life. The Houston-based builder joins Ashton Woods in a community that already features a clubhouse, a resort-style pool, sports courts, dog parks and pedestrian-friendly pathways at its amenity center. Berry Bay residents are zoned for Reddick Elementary, Shields Middle School and Sumner High School.
Balm Grove Targets Entry-Level Buyers
A few miles away, Balm Grove is shaping up as the next chapter of residential development in South Hillsborough, with Lennar and D.R. Horton both offering homes starting in the low $300,000s. The pricing positions Balm Grove as an entry point for buyers priced out of pricier South Shore communities, with what the report describes as strong resale potential as the surrounding area continues to fill in with rooftops.
Wimauma sits just south of Riverview in South Hillsborough County, with Interstate 75 access that connects residents to Riverview, Brandon and Sarasota. That connectivity, paired with an expanding roster of new retailers, restaurants and service providers choosing to locate near Wimauma, is part of what is drawing builders to a market that not long ago was defined almost entirely by agriculture.
A Population Surge Reshaping a Farm Town
The building boom tracks a demographic shift already well underway. Wimauma's population climbed to 15,266 residents as of the U.S. Census Bureau's 2024 five-year estimates, up from 9,467 in the 2020 Census, according to Census Reporter — a jump of more than 60 percent in just four years, with a median age of 28.6 that points to a young, family-heavy population. Census data compiled by Data USA shows 46.2 percent of Wimauma residents identify as Hispanic or Latino, with agriculture, construction and healthcare anchoring the local economy even as new subdivisions rise around the town's traditional core.
That growth didn't happen by accident. In May 2025, the Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners adopted Phase 1 of the Balm/Wimauma Urban Service Area Boundary Expansion, a move tied to projections that the county will gain more than 530,000 residents by 2050, according to Plan Hillsborough. The boundary expansion opened the door for landowners to request higher-density rezoning and aligned county infrastructure funding with the corridors where developers like Eisenhower Property Group wanted to build.
Schools and Utilities Racing to Keep Pace
Public institutions are scrambling to catch up with rooftops. Hillsborough County Public Schools opened the $178 million Aquilla J. Morgan High School in Wimauma last August, giving the district its largest and most expensive campus with room for up to 3,500 students, according to the Tampa Bay Times. The 87-acre campus was built to relieve overcrowding at nearby Lennard and Sumner high schools. District leaders have since approved an $82 million middle school on West Lake Drive, adjacent to Morgan High and set to open in August 2027 with capacity for 1,600 students, as reported by WTSP.
Water and sewer capacity is under similar strain. Hillsborough County commissioners cleared up to $650 million in utility revenue notes as part of a broader $1.6 billion program to build the South County One Water Campus and wastewater facility, a project Hoodline previously detailed in its coverage of South Hillsborough's utility financing. Regional utility Tampa Bay Water is also designing the South Hillsborough Pipeline to pump up to 65 million additional gallons of drinking water daily from Brandon into southern Hillsborough County, terminating at a new connection point in Balm.
Traffic has drawn attention from county planners as well. Hillsborough County Public Works launched a $14.85 million capital improvement project at the intersection of Balm Riverview Road and Rhodine Road, adding traffic signals, turn lanes and pedestrian safety upgrades meant to ease congestion along routes feeding the area's growing subdivisions.
Healthcare Access and Small-Town Roots
HCA Florida South Shore Hospital has expanded healthcare access for the surrounding community as the population has grown, adding another layer of infrastructure supporting the wave of new residents. Beneath all of the construction, Wimauma's origins remain rooted in a much smaller story: the town was founded in 1902 by Captain C.H. Davis as a halfway stop along the Seaboard Air Line railroad, its name a portmanteau of his three daughters — Willie, Maude and Mary.
The county's 2021 update to the Wimauma Community Plan, which established the Wimauma Village Residential-2 land-use framework, was designed to balance that downtown revitalization with the suburban growth now underway. Eisenhower Property Group had previously challenged aspects of the plan before withdrawing its legal objection in late 2024, allowing the rules to take full effect. With that framework in place and builders like Perry Homes, Ashton Woods, Lennar and D.R. Horton already breaking ground, Wimauma's shift from agricultural crossroads to suburban housing market looks far from finished.
