North Carolina Strives to Stay on Top

It’s only been a few months since we did our round-up of the latest praise and accolades for the Research Triangle region and the state of North Carolina. Well it should hardly be a surprise that we already have more “great reviews” to report on.  And this time, there’s plenty to be shared statewide. So without further ado:

At the beginning of May, Site Selection magazine put out it’s rankings for Top Competitive States. North Carolina appears at #5, based on measurements that focus largely on capital investment in company facilities, along with job creation and tax climate. This ranking forms one component of Site Selection’s annual report on Top U.S. Business Climates. For 2011, North Carolina was recognized as having the #3 Business Climate.

And Site Selection isn’t the only publication that thinks so! Read more »

Sprucing Up for Spring in RTP

Many of us are gearing up right now for some spring cleaning. Around the Research Triangle Park, we’ve been doing some cleaning up of our own… in the form of improvements to our signage and landscaping. Some of these projects are fairly small, but put together they do a lot to enhance RTP’s character and appeal. Here are some examples:

First up is Davis Drive, one of RTP’s major roads. Back in the fall we began an effort to upgrade the landscaping along 4.4 miles of roadway, extending from the I-40 interchange to the southern RTP boundary near Morrisville. In the past few years, Davis Drive has been widened to accommodate more drivers, while development along the road has continued within RTP and further south. So it was a natural next step to give the road a fresh, greener look. The landscaping is strategically placed at the roadside along curves and near intersections such as NC 54 and Development Drive. There are also some plantings in road medians. The mix of trees, shrubs and groundcovers includes various types of magnolia, dogwood, winterberry, and juniper, among many other species.

New trees and shrubs take root along Davis Drive

Read more »

Year in Review: RTP Expansions

RTI's Building O9, opened in 2011

It’s certainly been an eventful year for the Research Triangle Park.  There’s a lot we could talk about: grant funding and capital infusion, conferences and events, a new CEO for RTP.  But one of the most exciting topics has been growth and expansion over the past year. In 2011, over 750,000 sq.ft. of  new office and industrial space was announced by various Park companies. Several of these projects are now well into the construction phase, or even complete. Here’s a quick breakdown of what’s been going on in 2011:

In September, Fidelity Investments purchased a group of four office buildings on NC Highway 54 formerly occupied by Nortel Networks. Fidelity is renovating the 676,000 sq.ft. of space, and will then consolidate its regional operations into one campus. This one purchase will go a long way towards reducing vacant space in RTP and rejuvenating its building stock.

Medicago held the ribbon cutting for its new $42 million, 97,000 sq.ft. facility in November. Breathing new life into North Carolina’s heritage, Medicago will produce influenza vaccines developed using tobacco leaves. Their cGMP facility has the capacity to produce more than 40 million doses of seasonal influenza vaccine or 120 million doses of pandemic influenza vaccine per year.

RTI International, our flagship research institute, held its grand opening for Building O9 in April. The office facility is a 127,000 sq.ft. companion to Building O8, completed several years earlier. Both facilities have been certified LEED Gold. RTI is now looking into opportunities to develop greenhouse space and a biocrude pilot production plant, either in RTP or nearby.

Syngenta Biotechnology is reinventing a site on Davis Drive that was home to one of the Research Triangle Park’s first buildings. Read more »

Hit the Road! Triangle Parkway Opens

David Joyner and Gene Conti unveil Triangle Parkway

Following months of construction and years of careful planning, Triangle Parkway is now officially open to the public. The 3.5-mile highway serves as a southern extension of the Durham Freeway (147) connecting I-40 to 540. It is the initial leg of the Triangle Expressway, North Carolina’s first modern toll road, which will continue on to Apex and Holly Springs by this time next year. Toll collection transponders are on sale now through NC Quick Pass. However, Triangle Parkway is free to drive on from now until January 3, offering the perfect opportunity to test out the new route.

The official ribbon-cutting on December 8 featured speeches from Gene Conti, State Secretary of Transportation, and David Joyner, Executive Director of the NC Turnpike Authority. Each gave a round of thank you’s to the many partners who worked hard to make Triangle Parkway a reality. North Carolina has seen its fair share of highway openings, but they likened this experience to having a first child. This much-needed road was nearly postponed for several decades due to limited State funding. Saving it meant re-imagining it as a toll project. But that required buy-in from a reluctant public. Getting construction underway was only possible with region-wide support. Mr. Joyner and Mr. Conti acknowledged the many communities who had signed a joint resolution endorsing the Triangle Parkway, ‘paving the way’ for construction. These included town and county governments, local Chambers of Commerce, and the Research Triangle Foundation.

As we’ve mentioned before, the Triangle Parkway project is significant for its commuting and economic development benefits. The ribbon-cutting ceremony also touched on some other noteworthy aspects of the project. First is the team effort mentioned above, where state and local leaders worked together to reach an important milestone for our region. Read more »

Behind the Scenes at RDU

The Raleigh-Durham International Airport has received a lot of acclaim for the recent and very impressive redevelopment of Terminal 2, as well as their 2011 ranking as the most efficient mid-sized airport in the nation. So it was certainly a treat when myself and a colleague were invited to take an in-depth tour of RDU’s operations.

In some ways, RDU operates like a small city. The have their own governing board, fire and rescue station, shuttle buses, fleet maintenance, landscaping crews, energy plant and more. Managed by the Raleigh-Durham Airport Authority, RDU gets most of its revenue from parking. They aim to diversify their income sources in order to keep operation fees for airlines low. Other sources under consideration include selective timbering of the airport’s 5,000 acre property, and additional commercial development at Aviation Station (where the Sheetz gas station on Aviation Parkway is located).

Our tour started off  at the General Aviation Terminal, where Obama parks Air Force One when he comes to visit, and moved straight to the Emergency Services Building, which is responsible for firefighting, aircraft rescue, structural fire protection, and emergency medical services.

View of Terminal 2 from RDU's Control Tower

The highlight of the tour was the opportunity to climb the air traffic control tower, where the controllers direct planes as they take off and land. The name of the game for these employees is efficiency combined with a very important focus on safety. With 372 daily arrivals and departures and 9.1 million passengers flowing through the airport on an annual basis, it is very important to airport administrators that flights take off on time. Our tour guides went into great detail about the specific flight paths that are permitted to and from RDU, the required clearance between planes, and the strategies for handling severe weather situations. Each member of the control tower team has a specific role that keeps things running smoothly. Read more »

RTI Employees Park and Plug In

Those of you who consider yourselves fans of electric vehicles know that they’ve had a big year. Previously on this blog, we’ve covered Raleigh’s commitment to promote the technology, as well as Nissan’s rollout of their new all-electric model. Well for the next chapter, we turn to one of our own Research Triangle Park companies, RTI International.

As an organization saturated by cutting-edge technology, it makes sense that RTI would have a strong interest in electric vehicles (EV’s) – both at the employee and corporate levels. Recent in-house surveys have indicated a substantial number of RTI employees interested in buying an EV in the next 2 years. For the company as a whole, RTI has acquired Neighborhood Electric Vehicles for trips around campus. And in studying their ecological footprint, they are targeting reductions in the 17% of RTI’s total emissions caused by commuting. Read more »

A Round of Applause for the Research Triangle

It’s no secret that the Research Triangle region is a great place to live and do business. Folks in RTP and the surrounding area know that first-hand. But when it comes to spreading the word, we’re also fortunate to be frequently recognized by some major publications.

We try to keep track of these accolades, as you’ll see in the scrolling news crawl at the top of this post. Here are details on some of the recent “great reviews” the region has been getting:

Perhaps the most exciting honor to share is Raleigh’s #1 ranking as America’s Best City by Bloomberg Businessweek (September 2011). Read more »

Building Bridges to the Classroom

Kit Creek Bridge

As an organization founded on collaboration between the region’s research universities, the Research Triangle Foundation is always looking for new opportunities to engage our academic partners. One of the projects in this vein involves a group of landscape architecture students from North Carolina State University. This week, we had the chance to hear presentations from them on the potential for planting and amenities around a new pedestrian bridge in southern RTP.

Read more »

Make Way for Triangle Parkway

An important change to travel patterns in RTP is coming this weekend, and we want to make sure word gets out.

Road construction on "the spur"

Starting next Tuesday, September 6, the portion of Highway 147 south of I-40 (also known as “the spur”) will be closed for construction. Some of you may have already seen the flashing signs around the 147/40 interchange. Here’s what it comes down to: Going south on 147, I-40 will be the last exit you can take, and from I-40, there will only be the option to go north on 147. A map of alternate routes to access TW Alexander Drive can be found here. Read more »

Seeing RTP Through the Trees

Let’s say you’re taking a drive through RTP, as people often do, to get the lay of the land. What stands out the most along the way? If you said ‘trees’, you wouldn’t be alone. The Research Triangle Park is frequently characterized by its extensive landscaping and vegetation. And if you look a little closer, you’ll also find an abundance of flowers, lakes, streams, and wildlife. From time to time, it’s nice to take a step back and appreciate the rich natural landscape of RTP.

Natural systems have been an integral part of RTP’s development since the beginning. Land management regulations have always kept portions of our research campuses wooded, while topography and drainage have guided the way sites were laid out. And for many years, RTP has had so much land available that its pastoral character was practically a given. But as undeveloped property became scarcer, it was time to be more intentional and strategic with how we relate to the environment.

Read more »