When Toll Brothers broke ground on Saltgrass at Heron Bay in September 2025, the company's division president told Parkland officials the homes would start at $1.6 million. That was the number in the press release. That was the number the city commissioners heard at the groundbreaking. Nine months later, when the community actually opened for sale, the price sheet read $1.3 million.
That is not a rounding error. It is a $300,000 gap between what a builder guided at the ribbon-cutting stage and what it actually charged once real buyers showed up. For anyone comparing Parkland neighborhoods right now, that gap is the most useful data point in the whole story, because it tells you something the marketing copy never will: how a builder prices land it knows will never be replaced.
A Master Plan That Finished Building Itself
Heron Bay is not a place that normally gets new construction. The master-planned community spans both Parkland and Coral Springs, was established in 1998, and had built out its full run of roughly 3,025 homes across 34 distinct neighborhoods by 2017. Residents there have had access to two clubhouses, a resort-style pool, and a championship 18-hole course for the better part of two decades, but they have not had access to a builder's design studio. Every home in the community has been a resale.
Saltgrass changes that, but only for 52 homesites, and only because of a land transaction that had almost nothing to do with normal homebuilding economics.
Where the Land Actually Came From
The parcel Toll Brothers is building on did not sit on a developer's balance sheet waiting for the right market cycle. It came out of a public utility's real estate portfolio.
North Springs Improvement District, the special taxing district that manages stormwater and water resources for the area, originally purchased the larger tract in 2019. The district set aside roughly 150 acres of that land for stormwater management and public walking trails, and reserved a portion of the remainder as the future site of a memorial to the 17 victims of the February 14, 2018 tragedy at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. That left about 70 acres the district considered developable.
Here is the timeline of what happened to that acreage:
| Date | What happened |
|---|---|
| 2019 | North Springs Improvement District purchases the larger golf-course tract, earmarking roughly 150 acres for stormwater management and trails |
| January 2023 | City of Parkland finalizes purchase of approximately 65 acres of the district's developable land for $25.4 million |
| August 16, 2023 | Parkland City Commission votes unanimously to resell a 21-acre "dog leg" portion of that land to Toll Brothers for $19.5 million, capped at no more than 52 homes |
| September 2025 | Toll Brothers breaks ground on Saltgrass at Heron Bay, guiding prices "starting at $1.6 million" |
| June 1, 2026 | Toll Brothers formally announces Saltgrass is open for sale, priced from $1.3 million |
A city government does not typically end up in the business of buying golf course land and reselling a slice of it to a national homebuilder. That this one did is the reason Saltgrass exists at all, and it is not a mechanism that repeats on a schedule. It happened because a water management district had surplus acreage tied to a specific 2019 purchase, and because the city wanted to control what happened to the parcel that includes the Stoneman Douglas memorial site. Absent another entity deciding to offload land it did not plan to keep, there is no obvious next Saltgrass waiting in Heron Bay.
Why the Number Moved
Back to that $300,000 gap. A few things happened between the groundbreaking guidance and the actual launch.
By mid-May 2026, weeks before Toll Brothers' formal grand-opening announcement, at least one new-home listing aggregator already showed Saltgrass homes available starting at $1,319,995. That is a soft launch pattern builders use often: get homes in front of serious buyers quietly, then make the official announcement once early sales validate the pricing. Toll Brothers' June 1 press release confirmed the number publicly, describing home designs from roughly 2,632 to over 4,000 square feet with three- to four-car garages, priced from $1.3 million.
Then the price moved again, in the other direction. By July 10, 2026, a South Florida real estate trade publication reported the community's pricing had climbed to a range of $1.36 million to $1.67 million, with the largest plans reaching 4,750 square feet. In roughly five weeks, the entry point rose by tens of thousands of dollars.
Read those two data points together and the pattern is straightforward. The $1.6 million figure from groundbreaking was aspirational, the kind of number a builder floats early to manage expectations upward before it has real buyer feedback. The $1.3 million figure at launch was closer to what the market would actually bear on day one. The subsequent climb toward $1.67 million reflects what happens once a limited release starts selling through: the cheapest floor plans go first, and the remaining inventory carries a higher price by default.
For a buyer, the lesson is not that Toll Brothers misjudged its own community. It is that presale guidance on a scarce, non-repeatable parcel should be treated as a starting conversation, not a ceiling or a floor.
The Real Comparison Is Next Door, Not Across Town
The number that matters most to someone actually deciding whether to buy at Saltgrass is not the builder's price. It is what the same square footage costs three streets over, in a resale home inside the same gates, with access to the same two clubhouses and the same golf course.
Saltgrass opened at $1.3 million in June 2026 and had already pushed past $1.6 million within roughly five weeks, according to that July trade coverage. Existing Heron Bay homes, sold as resales within the same gates and with access to the same two clubhouses and golf course, have not historically traded anywhere near that range. The exact gap moves with every closing, but the direction does not: buying new inside Heron Bay costs meaningfully more than buying the resale next door, and that gap is the real price of being the only builder allowed to break ground here.
That premium is not unusual for new construction generally. What is unusual is buying it inside a community that has not built a new home in years and, based on how this parcel came together, may not build another one for years after these 52 sell out. Buyers weighing Saltgrass against an existing Heron Bay resale are not just weighing finishes and warranty coverage. They are weighing whether being the only new-construction option inside a closed, mature master plan is worth the premium the market is currently charging for it.
What This Means If You're Comparing Parkland Right Now
If new construction is the priority, Saltgrass is close to a singular opportunity inside Heron Bay for the foreseeable future, and the pricing trajectory from groundbreaking to launch to five weeks later suggests the earliest released homesites carried the best relative value.
If a resale home inside Heron Bay is more realistic for the budget, Saltgrass's pricing still works in a seller's favor. A builder charging well over $1.3 million, and climbing toward $1.67 million, for a home inside the same gates gives a resale listing a stronger comparable to point to than it had before Saltgrass opened.
And if the appeal is simply Parkland itself rather than this specific gated community, it is worth remembering that Saltgrass exists because of a land transaction unlikely to repeat elsewhere in the city on the same terms. Most new construction in Parkland going forward will come from ordinary developer acquisitions, not from a water district's surplus acreage working its way through a city commission vote.
A Few Direct Questions
Will Toll Brothers build more new homes inside Heron Bay after these 52 sell? Nothing in the public record suggests additional developable acreage remains inside the master plan. The land not sold to Toll Brothers is committed to stormwater management, trails, and the Stoneman Douglas memorial, which are permanent public uses rather than a land bank for future phases.
Why did the groundbreaking price and the launch price differ by so much? Groundbreaking guidance from September 2025 named $1.6 million as a starting figure before any homes were actually offered for sale. The formal June 2026 launch priced from $1.3 million, and pricing rose again by that July as the fastest-moving floor plans sold through.
Is the new-construction premium here typical for Parkland? It reflects the specific scarcity of building inside an already completed master plan. Other parts of Parkland with ordinary developer land will likely see smaller gaps between new and resale pricing, because that land does not carry the same one-time-only backstory.
If you are weighing a new build against a resale purchase in Parkland, including inside a closed community like Heron Bay, the numbers only tell half the story until someone walks you through how the land actually became available. That is the conversation The Coastal Realm has with Parkland buyers every week. Schedule your free market consultation and we will map out exactly what a property like this is really worth before you sign anything.
