Emerging District

Collaboration and big-picture thinking produce a proposed new district.

If you’ve seen Yellowstone, you know property ownership and inheritance dealings can turn ugly quick. But when Wake County, WakeMed and Wake Tech VIPs assembled to discuss the future of the area surrounding WakeMed’s campus off New Bern Avenue in Southeast Raleigh—where each institution owns a portion of land—there was no contention. Instead, the three parties decided to throw out property lines and work together to create a health and education district that would benefit everyone.

A remarkable unprecedented move spawning a major impact on Raleigh for years to come, the project will be transformational not just for Southeast Raleigh, but for the entire New Bern Avenue corridor—aka “the gateway right into Downtown,” says Tom Cavender, WakeMed’s VP of facilities and construction. Think green space, pedestrian- and bike-friendly paths, and a quad-like feel augmenting the area and adding to the bus rapid transit construction already underway.

“The synergy that will come from this collaborative effort will reach far beyond the borders of these three institutions to impact the entire community in a very positive way,” says former Wake County Commissioner Sig Hutchinson—“from affordable housing to active lifestyles to creating healthy communities to health care services to educational opportunities.”

According to Cavender, what spurred the project was “essentially a confluence of energy between Wake Tech, WakeMed and Wake County… a situation where the sun, stars and moon all aligned.” In short, Wake County received bond money to build a replacement public health center at New Bern Avenue and Sunnybrook Road—nearly adjacent to both WakeMed and Wake Tech—at the same time Wake Tech and WakeMed were collaborating on long-term plans.

So Cavender called Jeff Carter and Mark Forestieri, his Wake Tech and Wake County counterparts, respectively, and said, “What if we just sat around a table… and thought through a way we can better utilize what we have available to us? It’s a great public-private partnership.”

They gathered key players from each org, and “we said, ‘Peel all your allegiances away: What’s best for all of us when we look at this massive 135 acres of land we have between us?’” Cavender recalls. Everyone was on board—and the idea for a health and education district was born. 

“It truly was this notion of an opportunity for everybody to win, and I think that’s what’s going to happen,” says Wake Tech President Dr. Scott Ralls. “Health care needs from our area are going to continue to grow because we’re growing—and we’re growing older at the same time. … We’re the largest higher-ed provider of health care in Wake County and one of the largest in the region, so that’s a key expansion area for us.”

While WakeMed will inherit adjacent land from Wake County for replacement facilities, Wake Tech will gain significant acreage from WakeMed on the Falstaff Road side to achieve its desired growth. “Right now we’re investing $121 million in the initial expansion for our education part of the campus, so it’s going to mean some big opportunities for Wake County and for the future,” reveals Dr. Ralls.

According to Cavender, the entire district is currently in the rezoning stage and will most likely go to City Council for approval by the end of 2024. If it passes, we could be seeing cranes in the sky by this time next year. The rest is still unwritten because, as Hutchinson points out: “These three institutions erased the property lines and redrew them so each institution would benefit from what they needed versus what they owned. Nothing like this has ever been done before.” 

Cavender notes the trio served as the “key component to get this thing off the ground and rolling.” But now he’s hopeful more of WakeMed’s partners and developers willing to invest in the area with speculative incubator buildings will want to join the district.

“We’re being very judicious and purposeful in our thinking,” says Cavender, nodding to child abuse prevention nonprofit  SAFEchild’s 20,000-square-foot facility on the campus as an initial partnership to pave the way for further such community collaboration. He also hopes it will serve as a magnet to draw people to the school and to businesses in the area.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” says Hutchinson. “There is such tremendous leadership in all three of these institutions, and I just continue to be amazed at what they can deliver as a model for not only North Carolina, but also for the rest of the country.” 

Wake Tech Phase 1 Plans

• New parking garage
• Cutting-edge 106,000-square-foot addition to its Perry Health Sciences Campus—approximately half of which will be a simulated hospital
• Expansion of the nursing program and imaging program
• Imaging program will boast a partnership with Siemens, making it one of the most high-tech training centers in the nation.
• Two additional building sites available to support Wake Tech’s long-term future growth