Veridea near Apex nears first residents as Wake County growth expands

The first residents at Veridea are now on track for late 2027, the point when a long-delayed 1,100-acre district south of downtown Apex will begin adding homes, students and retail to western Wake County.

That milestone comes after more than a decade of false starts. The project was first in another developer’s hands in 2009, then spent years tied up in court before RXR bought the first parcels in 2023 and phase one finally got moving. The Town of Apex says the site is now well underway with initial infrastructure construction and site preparation, with activity visible along the Hwy 55 border and the Veridea Parkway border.

The first building to rise is Summit House, a two-building luxury apartment complex that broke ground on Oct. 28, 2025. Developers say it is the first residential building in Veridea and is set to open to renters in early 2028, while other expectations put the first apartments available for leasing in 2027. That timing matters because the project is not a single apartment complex. Phase one has been described as including about 1,100 single-family homes and townhomes, up to 1,500 apartments and about 200,000 square feet of retail, restaurant and commercial space.

Over the full buildout, Veridea is expected to run 10 to 12 years and could ultimately allow up to 8,000 residential units and 15.5 million square feet of commercial space under zoning. The mix is designed to go beyond housing, with a 340,000-square-foot Wake Tech campus planned for about 3,000 students and a future North Carolina Children’s hospital anchoring the site’s health care side. North Carolina Children’s chose Apex on July 10, 2025, for its freestanding independent children’s hospital, and that announcement helped accelerate interest in the development.

For Apex leaders, the project is about more than new rooftops. Mayor Jacques Gilbert has said the town needs more commercial density to strengthen tax revenue and quality of life, and he has repeatedly pointed to Veridea as a major answer to growth pressure in western Wake. He also said some NC 55-related work is expected before the first residents arrive, though current expectations for parts of the road project are around 2030. The planned upgrades include intersection improvements at Technology Drive and widening from U.S. 1 to Olive Chapel Road.

Veridea sits about two miles south of downtown Apex, bordered by U.S. 1 and NC 540, giving it direct access to some of the region’s busiest corridors. Early projections once talked about 30,000 jobs and $6 billion in tax revenue, but newer estimates are more measured, with one report projecting more than 2,300 annual jobs during construction and about $1.6 billion in cumulative labor income. Even so, the first move-ins will be a clear signal that western Wake’s next growth center has moved from planning to delivery.