Is development at Dorothea Dix Park a welcome revitalization or unjust gentrification?
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The cascading stretch of untenanted houses was barren and somber as Mike Melvin tinkered beneath the hood of his broken-down Chevy.
Until earlier this month, Melvin had spent 15 years in the house at 1217 Lake Wheeler Road under a rotating cast of landlords. The Fuller Heights neighborhood — vibrant and diverse in the shadow of Raleigh’s downtown skyline — is where his children spent most of their formative years. Now, much of it awaits demolition.
Many residents, including Melvin and his family, were required to vacate the area by the first week of 2022. The houses adjacent to Dorothea Dix Park on Lake Wheeler will soon give way to a $600 million development from Raleigh-based SLI Capital and New York City’s Mack Real Estate Group.
In December, the duo announced it was buying 7.5 acres between Lake Wheeler Road, South Saunders Street and Hammell Drive, adjacent to Dix Park. The partners will erect two high-rise apartment buildings capped at 20 stories. The project will reserve space for office and retail tenants and will include a public art installation and bike-sharing station.
The development promises as many as 1,200 new apartment units close to downtown, but they’re unlikely to house the people who long called Fuller Heights their home. The shrinking district has been one of few in Raleigh with naturally occurring affordable housing. Many of its residents, who are mostly Black and Latino, must now leave the Raleigh area as rents increase.
Melvin took his family to Knightdale after feeling like an interloper in his hometown. He’d only come back to Fuller Heights to retrieve the old truck.
“There was nowhere to go nearby,” he said. “If you find something, it’s double the rent of what I had... It’s kind of messed up in a way. It really hurts the people, the residents. When money comes into it, (developers) don’t care.”
SLI and MREG declined to comment on how their project would affect displaced residents. The developers plan to complete Raleigh’s site review and design approval processes in a year or less and break ground in the second half of 2022, Bryan Kane, CEO and managing partner at SLI, told the N&O in an email.
Downtown South and other projects
The two towers that will supplant much of Fuller Heights are the latest in a string of controversial development plans for the Dix Park district.
City leaders and developers hope modifications to the park and its surroundings will infuse Raleigh with new growth. Housing advocates fear the area’s evolution will inflate living prices and force more of the city’s diverse populations to move elsewhere.
There are 13 new developments planned along or near the park edge that could bring more than 5,200 new residential units. The largest is Downtown South, set to begin construction in 2022. John Kane, of Kane Realty Corp., is spearheading the project with Steve Malik, owner of the North Carolina Courage and North Carolina FC soccer teams. John Kane is Bryan Kane’s father.
The $2.2 billion sports and entertainment complex would cover as much as 140 acres at the intersection of Interstate 40 and South Saunders Street. Its site plan features hotels, housing, office and retail space. A 20,000-seat, open-air sports and entertainment stadium is possible, but developers have not secured necessary funding.
Renovations to and expansion of Dix Park are also planned for the coming year. The city is scheduled to break ground on a new “Plaza & Play” public space in July that will upgrade the park’s appearance and functionality. But 2022’s plans may displace more of the area’s longtime residents as the cost of living swells.
“It’d be nice if they could give people the chance to see if they could stay somehow,” Melvin said. “Instead it just seems like they’re forcing us out.”
News & Observer readers: Click here for 5 Signs of Change: Part Four.
Durham Herald-Sun readers: Click here for 5 Signs of Change: Part Four.
This story was originally published January 23, 2022 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Is development at Dorothea Dix Park a welcome revitalization or unjust gentrification?."
