Construction has begun on Sunrise Hills, a large-scale residential community planned for an 1,100-acre site in Brooksville, where Metro Development is expecting to deliver close to 4,000 homes along with a 2.5-acre sand-bottom lagoon, walking trails and other wellness-focused amenities.
The project is being built at Sunrise Hills Boulevard and Moonlit Path Road in Hernando County. While the developer has not publicly released home sizes, the community’s website says residences will come equipped with pre-installed smart home technology that allows owners to control temperature, lighting and security systems wirelessly.
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Sunrise Hills is one of the larger residential projects now moving forward in Hernando County, where Metro Development is also behind Sandal Key, another planned community in the area that is expected to break ground in December and include more than 3,000 homes.
| Project Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Project Name | Sunrise Hills |
| Location | Sunrise Hills Boulevard and Moonlit Path Road, Brooksville, Hernando County, Florida 34602 |
| Developer | Metro Development |
| Homebuilders | DRB Homes, D.R. Horton and Lennar |
| Planned Homes | Close to 4,000 |
| Site Size | 1,100 acres |
| Amenities | 2.5-acre sand-bottom lagoon, miles of walking trails and wellness-focused amenities |
| Notable Design Feature | A silo-inspired entry feature recalling the area’s history |
Large Residential Plan Moves Into Construction
Sunrise Hills is now transitioning from planning to construction in Brooksville, marking the start of a project that will reshape a major tract of land in northwestern Hernando County. The community is expected to bring nearly 4,000 homes to the market across 1,100 acres, giving the development a scale more commonly associated with master-planned suburban growth than with a single neighborhood.
Metro Development is leading the project, while DRB Homes, D.R. Horton and Lennar are listed as the homebuilders involved. The developer has not yet publicly disclosed the size range of the homes, the product mix or model details, leaving several key residential specifications to be revealed later in the process.
According to the developer materials cited by Florida YIMBY, the homes will include smart technology packages designed to let residents manage temperature, lighting and security settings remotely. That positions Sunrise Hills within a larger trend among new suburban communities, where connected-home features have become a standard selling point rather than a premium upgrade.
Where Sunrise Hills Is Being Built
The community is located at Sunrise Hills Boulevard and Moonlit Path Road in Brooksville, within the 34602 ZIP code. Brooksville, the Hernando County seat, has seen continued residential expansion as builders target land availability and lower-density sites outside the core of Tampa Bay’s more urbanized submarkets.
For readers tracking growth in the region, the project’s location is notable because it sits in a part of Central Florida that has increasingly attracted large master-planned developments. Mapped on a broader scale, the site is positioned to serve both local buyers and households looking for newer housing options within commuting distance of the Tampa Bay area.
The project’s placement in Hernando County also reflects a broader pattern of suburban and exurban development moving outward from Tampa Bay, where demand for single-family homes continues to push builders toward larger land assemblages and planned communities with bundled amenities.
Amenities Designed Around Wellness and Open Space
In addition to its housing count, Sunrise Hills is being marketed around lifestyle and outdoor features. The most prominent of those is a 2.5-acre sand-bottom lagoon, which will serve as a central amenity within the community. The project is also expected to include miles of walking trails, reinforcing the developer’s emphasis on recreation and wellness.
Metro Development has said the community will be shaped to “reflect the character of Brooksville,” using architectural elements that reference the city’s cultural heritage. One of the most visible examples is a silo feature that will mark the community entrance, an unusual design choice intended to tie the subdivision’s identity to the area’s rural and agricultural past.
That type of theming has become increasingly common in large Florida subdivisions, especially in communities where developers are trying to create a distinct identity beyond standard tract-home branding. In Sunrise Hills’ case, the silo is meant to serve as both a visual marker and a nod to local history.
Metro Development Expands Its Hernando County Pipeline
Sunrise Hills is not Metro Development’s only significant project in Hernando County. The company is also behind Sandal Key, another large residential community planned for the county. Florida YIMBY reported that Sandal Key is expected to break ground in December and could deliver more than 3,000 homes.
Taken together, the two projects suggest a sizable expansion of Metro Development’s footprint in the market. While the details of each community differ, both point to the same underlying strategy: large-scale residential development in an area with available land and room for suburban-style growth.
The involvement of DRB Homes, D.R. Horton and Lennar also underscores the project’s significance. All three are active national or regional homebuilders with experience delivering large communities, and their participation suggests Sunrise Hills is structured as a phased multi-builder development rather than a single-brand subdivision.
What Is Known, and What Has Not Been Released
At this stage, public information about Sunrise Hills remains limited. The developer has confirmed the broad scale of the project and its amenity plan, but it has not disclosed unit sizes, floor plans, pricing or a completion timeline. It also has not released schedule details for individual homebuilder phases.
That leaves several key questions unanswered for prospective buyers and observers following residential growth in Hernando County. For now, the most concrete facts are the size of the site, the expected home count, the participating builders and the amenity package centered on the lagoon and trail network.
As construction moves ahead, more details are likely to emerge through filings, builder announcements and future marketing releases. Until then, Sunrise Hills stands as one of the most substantial new housing projects now underway in Brooksville.
Why the Project Matters
Sunrise Hills adds to a growing list of large residential developments moving through the broader Tampa Bay region, where housing demand has encouraged builders to pursue larger master-planned communities on available land farther from the urban core. In Hernando County, that trend is especially visible as developers assemble projects that combine scale, amenity programming and multiple builders under one neighborhood umbrella.
For Brooksville, the project represents a material addition to the county’s future housing pipeline. If delivered as planned, Sunrise Hills will introduce thousands of new homes and a new neighborhood identity shaped around open space, recreation and residential technology.
That combination of size, branding and builder participation makes the project worth following, even as many of its specific home designs and pricing details remain to be announced.






