Raleigh Experiencing Dramatic Growth

Writing for the Commercial Observer, Celia Young reports on Raleigh, North Carolina’s explosive growth. “With high-rises sprouting throughout Raleigh’s downtown and Warehouse District, startup hubs and lab conversions transforming neighboring Durham’s former tobacco warehouses, and a burgeoning life sciences sector becoming a bigger national player amid a race for lab space, the Triangle is a ‘supernova,’ according to the latest Urban Land Institute (ULI) Emerging Trends report.”

According to Young, “The region has attracted 44,000 new jobs since the pandemic, just behind Austin and Nashville, with Wake County, where Raleigh’s located, welcoming just over 62 people a day last year.” As Young writes, “While it’s not surprising for a midsize metro in the Southeast and Sun Belt to take strides in today’s commercial real estate market, Raleigh-Durham tops peers with high educational attainment and high income in relation to housing and office costs.”

Young traces the history of Raleigh’s development as a research and tech hub. “Raleigh’s development boom, like so many things in the region, can trace part of its success back to the formation of Research Triangle Park (RTP) in 1959. A collaboration between the region’s academic powerhouses — Duke University in Durham, State University in Raleigh, and the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill — the 7,000-acre site became a magnet for tech.”

Young points to the city’s willingness to change its zoning code as one component of its rapid growth. “Combined with the city’s Unified Development Ordinance, which consolidates zoning and other planning regulations, Raleigh’s growth policies make it relatively easy to build, and build fast, especially compared to more established markets.” Similar growth is happening in other parts of the state, which is making a concerted push to woo major companies.