The winding road to the Whitehouse home, a beautiful brick two-story surrounded by towering pines, used to be called Old Holly Springs–Apex Road. Today, it’s Veridea Parkway, renamed for the multibillion-dollar mixed-use development taking shape on either side.
Greg and Brenda Whitehouse, a married couple in their 70s, are one of the last families who still live here. In early September, some of the final holdouts—their neighbors—moved on after decades in Apex, with Wake County real estate records showing they sold their properties to RXR, the New York development company in charge of Veridea.
Over the next five years, apartments, retail stores, and even an elementary school will be built on the 1,100 acres surrounding Veridea Parkway. The new NC Children’s Hospital, expected to bring 8,000 jobs to Apex, will be close to the Whitehouse home.
Still, Greg and Brenda have decided they aren’t going anywhere.
Deal or No Deal?
Developers have been buying up land around what is now Veridea Parkway for years, even before the project was officially proposed in 2009. Property purchases stalled after the development ran into legal challenges, but picked up again after RXR took over in 2022.
Joe Graziose Sr., executive vice president of development, is buying properties around Veridea with an eye toward future development, he told The Line in a July interview.
Wake County real estate records show those purchases include land around Veridea Parkway. Last month, one of the Whitehouses’ neighbors sold 2.7 acres, and their single-family home, to RXR for $1.7 million. Just two years ago, the property was valued by Wake County at around $660,000.
Another neighbor, who also sold in early September, got $700,000 from RXR for their nearly 1.4 acres and one-story home, a property originally valued by Wake County at around $350,000. The homeowners, and others who once lived on the property around Veridea Parkway, could not be reached for comment despite several phone calls and in-person visits to the area.
RXR has paid above market rate for most of these properties, records show: in some cases, hundreds of times their assessed value. One 0.3-acre parcel, for example, was valued at around $20,000 by Wake County, but sold to RXR for $125,000.
Greg and Brenda told The Line that RXR made an offer on their property, too. In fact, the couple has already sold about 27 acres they’re not living on, real estate records show. But when it comes to their lifelong home, the Whitehouse couple says they aren’t moving anytime soon.
“I’ve told Joe [Graziose Sr.], I’ve told everybody with this outfit at one time or another, ‘Forget about the price of the land. You’re asking me to sell our life,” Greg told The Line.
“If they want me to leave, they’ll have to pay me for the land, but they’re going to have to pay us to give up all the memories [too]. You know, we’ve been here a long time.”
The Whitehouses declined to have themselves or their property photographed because of their age and privacy.
When asked about the offer and other property deals, a RXR spokesperson declined to comment, writing that “out of respect for the privacy of the property owners, RXR does not disclose details of private land negotiations.” The Whitehouses told The Line that all their communications with RXR were verbal, either in person or over the phone.
A Lifelong Home
“A long time” is an understatement. Greg and Brenda built their house in 1972, right after they got married. In fact, they used the money they’d been saving for their honeymoon, and ended up going to a family cottage in Topsail Beach instead of flying to London or Acapulco.
Before that, Brenda grew up on this land, once a 200-acre family farm. The entire area used to be farmland, Brenda recalled, all connected by a one-lane dirt road.
“We put all the money into the house,” Greg said. “We couldn’t even go to Fuquay, let alone London.”
“It was a different life back then. It was the farm life,” Brenda said. “I didn’t go to the Brownies and the Girl Scouts. I was never allowed to do all that because we had to work the farm.”
As teenagers, Brenda and her sister would harvest and chop tobacco. Every Thanksgiving and Christmas, the entire family—Brenda and her many aunts, uncles, and cousins—would get together up at the big farmhouse, owned by her grandparents.
“I do miss those early days of the togetherness, of the whole family being out here,” Brenda said. “Of course, as things progressed and everybody grew up, it changed a lot.”
Several of the people who sold their homes on Veridea Parkway are related to the Whitehouses in some way. Brenda’s aunt and two uncles continued living on the family land long after they inherited it, later passing it on to their children.
Over the years, though, all the cousins moved on. In 2023, for example, some 75 acres once owned by Frank D. Prince, Brenda’s uncle, was sold to RXR for $5 million, real estate records show.
Overall, more than 150 acres that once belonged to Brenda’s family are now in the hands of RXR, according to real estate records. And while many family members moved on to buy homes in other parts of the state, money was certainly a motivating factor, in Brenda’s opinion.
“It was a substantial sum that they got,” Greg added. “Probably everybody has their price.”
Never Say Never
The Whitehouses aren’t completely against selling their property at some point, they said. But the amount of money offered would have to be enough to convince them to give up their lives here—in the millions, maybe.
“Who knows? In the next year or so, when they do get more ready to do something, somebody may come along with a price that we can’t refuse,” said Brenda. “We’ll just hang around and see what happens.”
In the meantime, they aren’t worried about the construction. The two don’t want to be surrounded by high-rises, but the children’s hospital is “a good thing,” Greg said. Like many, they hope Apex will invest in the infrastructure needed to accommodate such massive growth. Traffic, as always, is a concern.
Whatever happens, Greg doesn’t want to be forced out, he said.
A top-of-mind example for him is close to home. A few years ago, just 10 miles down the road, the North Carolina Department of Transportation seized more than 20 homes under eminent domain to support a major new commercial development. The plan was to create highway access to a manufacturing facility planned for the area. The now-infamous project, for electric vehicle manufacturer VinFast, ultimately fell through, leaving homeowners “SOL,” Greg said.
“The people that had owned that property since the late 1890s, they not only got rid of them, they took their homes and then they tore down their churches. They just leveled it,” he added. “And all they’ve got to show for it now is a big muddy field. That was terrible.”
As the Whitehouses mull over the future, muffled shrieks of joy and surprise filter into the living room. On a scorching afternoon in August, nieces and nephews are playing outside in the pool, still a gathering spot for family.
Upstairs, Greg carefully points out local landmarks he’s hidden in a massive model train set he’s been working on for more than 20 years. The model fills the entire room, with mountain peaks reaching toward the ceiling. It’s set into a custom wooden table, complete with electrical components and controls installed by Greg.
Needless to say, it’s impossible to move.
Share your thoughts on this story and other Western Wake coverage at line@theassemblync.com.
