The Silverlakes community is part of the development known as Gateway. The Silverlakes community is one of approximately thirty different residential areas, all within Gateway. Gateway has an estimated 13,000 residents. Over 3,300 children currently attend schools in Gateway with a new high school opening in 2021. There are approximately 100 lakes and wetlands within Gateway.
The approximately 4500 acres that make up the land that is now Gateway was purchased by Westinghouse from a Mr. George Sanders. This is the same Mr. Sanders that was involved with the construction of the Edison Mall. Westinghouse then established the name of Westinghouse Gateway Communities, Inc. to develop Gateway. The Gateway District was legally established on May 22, 1986. On September 28, 1992 Lennar Homes, Inc. purchased the Silverlakes portion of the property from Westinghouse Gateway Communities, Inc. (now known as WCI) for $6,000,000. Lennar installed the Silverlakes infrastructure and was the original builder of the homes in the Silverlakes community.
Originally Lennar intended to build villas on the property, but during the design phase changed to the current configuration of 14 villas and 315 single family homes.
On July 1, 1999 Colonial Homes, Inc. purchased the remaining unsold one-hundred-ten lots plus the four finished model homes from Lennar for $2,524,500. Colonial Homes continued to build the same type of homes plus added a few new models. In January 2002, Colonial Homes Inc. had essentially completed their sales activity. They closed the sales office and turned over the sale of the remaining three homes to outside realtors.
Turnover of the community from the developer (Colonial at this time) to the resident controlled Board occurred on March 19, 2000. Originally there were five members on the HOA Board, but at the start of 2001 this was changed to seven. Residents voted at the HOA annual meeting in 2004 to change the number of directors on the Board back to five members.
Originally the clubhouse was owned by Lennar and residents were charged a fee for its use. On December 27, 2000 the Silverlakes at Gateway Homeowner’s Association purchased the clubhouse from Lennar for $987,000. This price was thought to be outrageous at the time. However, the residents thought that the purchase was in their best interests in the long term. The clubhouse mortgage was paid off in 2018.