An inside look at the explosive growth near Dix Park in the heart of downtown Raleigh

RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- Hundreds of millions of dollars in new homes, and new retail stores -- essentially a brand-new neighborhood - are rising right next door to Raleigh's destination park.

ABC11 got an inside look at the new boomtown south of the city's center.

A big part of what's next and new south of downtown Raleigh is going up steps away from Dix Park.

"It fits what I call the center of what's next for Raleigh," said Stacey Buescher, Kane Realty's Managing Operations Director.

Buescher led our tour through the Raleigh real estate giant's massive new investment that's soon to become the city's new southern gateway, complete with an urban greenway connecting trail that will serve as a new link to Raleigh's Rocky Branch Trail.

"All of the apartments are here, you've got a leasing office here. It's 18,000 square feet of retail space along here," said Beuscher as she walked us through the busy construction zone of South Saunders Steet.

It's called Rockway Raleigh. When all three buildings are complete, it will add 1,000 new luxury apartments and street-facing retail to this once-sleepy part of the city that is glowing up fast in the shadow of the massive remake of Dix Park.

Buescher said Dix Park is a major selling point as they market the property to tenants.

"One thousand percent," she said. "(Dix Park) is part of what we're selling because it is part of what this community is cultivating. And a lot of parks have four ways to develop around it and really ours has one. So we're trying to bring as much as we can to this side of Dix Park."

Dix Park Executive Director Kate Pearce has her hands full managing the transformation of the 300-acre park: the Stone Houses are complete, including a new welcome center; the $67-million Gipson Play Plaza is set to open next year.

Investments in the park are driving economic development adjacent to Dix.

"I think right now, there's over $700 million of new development in the pipeline right across from the park," Pearce said.

And not just Rockway. There's The Weld, twin 20-story high-rise apartments just across the street and under construction now. Mira Raleigh and Capitol Square apartments were built or under construction along the park's edge.

"It's great to have strong edges around parks. If you think of some of the great urban parks in the country, they're surrounded by lots of people living next door to them. And that's what we hope for Dix Park," said Pearce.

It also means modernizing the main road leading to Dix: Adding sidewalks, bike paths, crosswalks, and roundabouts to Lake Wheeler Road.

But transforming Lake Wheeler from an old country road into a modern transit way takes space. And for the residents living next door to Dix, it will take a lot of their space. The stakes in the ground of their front yards represent the land that would be eaten up by the project.

"If you actually look at the stakes they have in people's yards, it's all the way up to their front porch," said Kelly Gould, a Wake school teacher who rents a home just off Lake Wheeler Road.

Gould and her 11-year-old daughter are excited about the park, but she's concerned about traffic, property loss and potential displacement as higher-income residents move in and property values rise.

"There is a lot of good that comes with (Dix Park development) but I think what they're gonna do is communities like this are going to eventually push people out of the area," she said.

Pierce said that was a concern that the city is working to address.

"I know a lot of people are concerned about being priced out. Will the landlord sell my house because they get an offer from a larger developer," Pearce said. "And I think that's where the city's affordable housing policies are trying to step in and fill the gap."

Meantime, the progress continues at and near Dix Park. Rockway Raleigh starts moving in residents later this fall.