Raleigh unveiled its master plan for the site, known as Dorothea Dix Park, in February.
"It was a really exciting moment,"Ashley Cagle, a vice president at Wake County Economic Development, an agency that helped bring the project to fruition, told Business Insider. "Like all big infrastructure projects, you're kind of biting your nails, like, is this going to happen?"
The site is about a third the size of New York's Central Park, but officials hope it will unite the city in a similar way. Raleigh intends to keep 8 acres' worth of buildings in the center of the park and demolish structures on another 8 acres. The remaining 292 acres consist mostly of lawns, fields, and forested areas.
According to the city's plan, this land could feature an outdoor theater, bike paths, athletic courts, sports fields, a botanical garden, and children's play areas. But none of these ideas are set in stone yet.
"We all tried not to have preconceived notions about what it should be," Cagle said. "We kind of started from scratch."