On September 25, Waterset posted four Saturday dates for its fall concert series at The Lakeside: October 10, October 24, November 7 and November 14. Each one starts at 6 p.m., with food trucks from 5 p.m. The Turkey Trot is set for Thanksgiving morning. Those dates are fixed, and that sets them apart from most of what is being built around the community.
The Yard's second phase was first expected in the fourth quarter of 2025 and is now aimed at late 2026. The Big Bend Road widening on Waterset's north side has two published completion dates a year apart. The Target planned near Big Bend Road and I-75 has no opening date. For the next two months, Waterset's event calendar is the most dependable schedule residents have. The one new opening that did land on its printed date came in August, a few minutes away on 19th Avenue NE.
Four Saturdays on the lawn at 7250 Parkshore Drive
The fall series is called Concerts for a Cause. All four nights are at The Lakeside at Waterset, 7250 Parkshore Drive, and each one leans toward a different genre:
- Saturday, October 10: Greg Roy and the Pressure Band, reggae
- Saturday, October 24: Stella Beat, Latin
- Saturday, November 7: 501 Band, rock and Top 40
- Saturday, November 14: Summer Breeze, yacht rock
The announcement on Waterset's site explains the format plainly:
"Admission is always free and open to the public, and each concert gives our community an opportunity to enjoy great music while giving back to local families in need."
The cause is Feeding Tampa Bay. Organizers ask guests to bring a nonperishable food item to help stock the Community Cupboard in Ruskin before the holidays. A donation truck will be on site at every concert, and cash donations are welcome too. Since the food trucks open an hour before the music, dinner is part of the evening. Waterset suggests coming early to grab a spot on the lawn.
The Yard, a year past its first Phase 2 estimate
The Yard has been open long enough that some residents may not remember it was built in stages. Radcliffe Keator Construction, which built five commercial shell buildings at The Yard totaling 27,472 square feet, lists Planet Smoothie and Pacific Counter among the interiors it later finished. By January 2025, the Osprey Observer reported that the first tenants were already open. That included Planet Smoothie, which had opened less than a month before. The same article put Phase 2 in the fourth quarter of 2025.
Waterset's current directory lists six tenants as open: Wingstop, Planet Smoothie, Rock N Roll Sushi, The Hungry Greek, Pacific Counter and The Greyson. The Greyson is the newest arrival. In January 2026, Waterset said the sports bar was expected sometime that year. In March, WhatNow Tampa reported the bar was working on its space at 6162 Paseo Al Mar Blvd., Suite 103. The directory now shows it as open, without a date.
Four more names sit under "Coming Soon": Foxtail Coffee, Pure Green, SoFresh and Swig. Swig is the only one with a confirmed timeline, and it depends on the building. The Osprey Observer's August roundup confirmed the drive-through drink chain for The Yard as part of Phase 2, now targeted for late 2026. Waterset's January outlook expected Foxtail during 2026, but no month has been announced. As of today, Pure Green and SoFresh have no published timing.
The opening that hit its date
Not every date moved. Publix opened its Wolf Creek Commons store on August 13, 2026, at 3050 19th Ave. NE in Ruskin. The store is 50,325 square feet and includes a pharmacy drive-through and a Publix Liquors next door. According to the Osprey Observer, the grocery store anchors a growing center that also has about 11,700 square feet of additional retail space and future outparcels. The extra space is still unleased, so the center's lineup is likely to grow over the next year.
Here is how each project's timeline has changed, as of September 30, 2026:
| Project | Earlier published timing | Current published timing |
|---|---|---|
| Publix, Wolf Creek Commons | Opened August 13, 2026 | Open |
| The Yard, Phase 2 | Q4 2025, per January 2025 coverage | Late 2026 |
| Foxtail Coffee at The Yard | Expected in 2026, per Waterset's January outlook | Listed as coming soon |
| Big Bend Road widening, US 41 to Covington Garden Drive | Mid-2029 completion, per June 2026 coverage | Mid-2028 completion, per the county |
| Target at LC Promenade | None announced | Plans under county review, no opening date |
Big Bend Road, and the trail that comes with it
The road project affects Waterset most directly, and construction has not started yet. Hillsborough County's capital improvement page covers the stretch it calls the western bookend: 0.75 miles of Big Bend Road between US 41 and Covington Garden Drive. The plan widens it from four lanes to six and adds sidewalks, drainage, curb and gutter, and a median. Design was scheduled to finish in mid-2026. Construction is set to begin in early 2027 and finish in mid-2028, with a construction budget of about $26.5 million.
For Waterset, the lane count matters less than the smaller pieces of the plan:
- A new traffic signal at Old Big Bend Road and Kings Lake Drive
- Covington Garden Drive becomes a three-leg intersection
- Kings Lake Drive gets resurfaced, plus a new southbound left-turn lane
- An 8- to 12-foot trail along Waterset Boulevard to the Scenic Drive Trailhead
The trail would connect a Waterset street to a county trailhead. It is the one part of the project that changes how people get around on foot or by bike, not just by car. The timeline is uncertain. A June 2026 Osprey Observer article on the same project gave mid-2029 as the completion estimate, a year later than the county's current page. The county's own schedule is the more recent of the two, but neither date is final until crews are on site.
There is also a smaller item to the south. FDOT's US 41 bridge maintenance project, which started May 26, 2026, includes repairs to the Little Manatee River bridge in Ruskin. Single-lane closures there are possible between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m., and the work is expected to wrap up in spring 2027. Anyone heading south on US 41 after a concert should plan for a possible closure.
Further out, the August Osprey roundup confirmed Target for LC Promenade near Big Bend Road and I-75. The plans call for a 149,006-square-foot store on about 12.5 acres, part of the larger development around the proposed Costco. The plans are under county review, and no opening date has been announced.
Thanksgiving morning, same address
The fall calendar ends where it begins, at 7250 Parkshore Drive. The Turkey Trot at Waterset runs Thanksgiving morning, Thursday, November 26. The 5K and kids' runs are listed from 8 a.m., with kids' races expected to start around 9 a.m. Proceeds go to Doby Elementary, Dorothy C. York Innovation Academy, Eisenhower Middle School and East Bay High School. The race FAQ lists the Landing Club and Café as the packet pickup location.
For residents who would rather spend Thanksgiving morning in the pool, Waterset's newest amenity has been running since January. The Founder's Club officially opened in January 2026. It has a clubhouse with co-working and gathering rooms, a fitness room, a resort pool, eight pickleball courts and a playground. The pool is heated, with beach entry and lap lanes, and the playground is fenced. The first concert is October 10 at 6 p.m.
At the Brenda Wade Team, we watch projects like The Yard's second phase and the Big Bend Road widening because they shape how Waterset will look and feel in the next couple of years. If you're thinking about selling in Waterset as those projects move along, we're happy to sit down and talk through your timing with you.
