Triangle Economic News

[ctl]

Alabama is the most unionized state in the South by far, now at 11% representation which is down from over 30% in the 1940s.  The prospect of unionized auto plants was not scary to Alabama. Of course, most auto plants in the south that are still open have turned out to be non-union... but NC business leaders in the 1980s and 1990s were not certain that it would work out that way. Note that both Ford and GM closed large plants in Atlanta over the last 20 years.

Edited January 11, 2018 by ctl

[KJHburg]

JLL office leasing report is out for the Triangle and this last year was the BEST ever for the Triangle.

Quote ""2017 has been a record-setting year for Raleigh-Durham. Despite 1.7 million square feet of deliveries, the market experienced 1.5 million square feet of positive net absorption, in part thanks to an average preleasing rate of nearly 60.0 percent. The vacancy rate has fallen to a 10-year low of 10.7 percent, and the average asking rate is on the rise, reaching $24.18 per square foot. The construction pipeline is jam packed, totaling over 2.0 million square feet of future office supply. ""

The Triangle as a whole region absorbed more office space than Charlotte a larger market did (and Charlotte had a great year too)  The Triangle office market has to be in the top 5 or so in the country and we will find out soon once JLL releases their national report. 

Download your own copy here  http://www.jll.com/raleigh-durham/en-us/research

What this means?  More office buildings will be announced all over the area. 

[RALNATIVE]

53 minutes ago, KJHburg said:

JLL office leasing report is out for the Triangle and this last year was the BEST ever for the Triangle.

Quote ""2017 has been a record-setting year for Raleigh-Durham. Despite 1.7 million square feet of deliveries, the market experienced 1.5 million square feet of positive net absorption, in part thanks to an average preleasing rate of nearly 60.0 percent. The vacancy rate has fallen to a 10-year low of 10.7 percent, and the average asking rate is on the rise, reaching $24.18 per square foot. The construction pipeline is jam packed, totaling over 2.0 million square feet of future office supply. ""

The Triangle as a whole region absorbed more office space than Charlotte a larger market did (and Charlotte had a great year too)  The Triangle office market has to be in the top 5 or so in the country and we will find out soon once JLL releases their national report. 

Download your own copy here  http://www.jll.com/raleigh-durham/en-us/research

What this means?  More office buildings will be announced all over the area. 

Hopefully this will result in more highrise construction downtown.

[Isaac]

Raleigh ranked #2 economy in the US.  Durham ranked #106 

 

https://www.google.com/amp/amp.newsobserver.com/news/business/article194349394.html

[KJHburg]

To me this is right  in the Research Triangle Park's wheelhouse.  Apple looking for second major office location.  They employ 6000 in suburban Austin and of course based in Cupertino CA both suburban campuses.    I would expect NC to vigorously go after this and I think this would be perfect in the Triangle somewhere.  Apple you may not know has about $1 Billion in planned or existing operations in their huge data center and solar farm in Maiden in Catawba County.  https://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/news/2018/01/17/apple-plans-to-build-another-u-s-corporate-campus.html?ana=e_ae_set1&s=article_du&ed=2018-01-17&u=oAaDx%2B74FoP4qOJ%2By4AU6dhJPpc&t=1516221923&j=79521291

and the snow is not stopping NC from starting the pursuit of Apple  

https://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/news/2018/01/17/n-c-economic-developers-make-initial-pitch-to-land.html?ana=e_trig_bn&u=oAaDx%2B74FoP4qOJ%2By4AU6dhJPpc&t=1516226616&j=79522421

Edited January 17, 2018 by KJHburg

[KJHburg]

Well Raleigh you are on the short list for Amazon HQ2 only NC city.   https://www.marketwatch.com/story/amazon-narrows-list-for-hq2-to-20-metropolitan-areas-2018-01-18

[Jones_]

16 minutes ago, KJHburg said:

Well Raleigh you are on the short list for Amazon HQ2 only NC city.   https://www.marketwatch.com/story/amazon-narrows-list-for-hq2-to-20-metropolitan-areas-2018-01-18

And that begs the question....is that RTP, or Raleigh proper? I don't remember if they submitted separate bids or not...

[KJHburg]

^^^ I thought some of the sites discussed in the Triangle were the RTP, downtown Raleigh and some others I think Centennial Campus might have been on there but can't remember.  

[Jones_]

4 hours ago, KJHburg said:

^^^ I thought some of the sites discussed in the Triangle were the RTP, downtown Raleigh and some others I think Centennial Campus might have been on there but can't remember.  

I remember different sites too, but not precisely the breakdown. Edit: Best I could come up with was 'several in RTP' one in Durham and no specifics on the rest, totaling 7 total. The folks submitting the bid(s) were mum on details. 

Edited January 18, 2018 by Jones_

[Green_man]

The official announcement names "Raleigh".  Not Durham, Research Triangle, Raleigh-Durham.  Gotta think that means Raleigh proper.  My opinion... Centennial-Dix land still makes the most sense to me.  Near highway, rail, outdoor activities, and opportunity to create urban campus from scratch. 

[DwnTwnRaleighGuy]

45 minutes ago, Green_man said:

The official announcement names "Raleigh".  Not Durham, Research Triangle, Raleigh-Durham.  Gotta think that means Raleigh proper.  My opinion... Centennial-Dix land still makes the most sense to me.  Near highway, rail, outdoor activities, and opportunity to create urban campus from scratch. 

That land bounded in yellow, is it a real option? 

[Isaac]

That’s NC State property so I’d guess there would need to be a deal worked out with them.  

[Jones_]

48 minutes ago, Green_man said:

The official announcement names "Raleigh".  Not Durham, Research Triangle, Raleigh-Durham.  Gotta think that means Raleigh proper.  My opinion... Centennial-Dix land still makes the most sense to me.  Near highway, rail, outdoor activities, and opportunity to create urban campus from scratch. 

Are there anymore partnership or other private office building sites left on Centennial Campus proper? I'm not sure the outlined area is nearly enough space on it's own but would be an interesting core...

I agree it's telling that RTP and Durham were left off the announcement...

I still also think, in a far away land, that you could cleave off half of the State Government complex and combine it with Kane's new stuff over at West/Harrington, and maybe get the County to give up it's operations center, and voila. Urban campus. So many pieces at the State level make this not a big deal for them including, DHHS campus being sped up, and could most likely be built to accommodate other State personnel, Revenue has been on the short list to move out of downtown for a while now (their building was designed to accommodate paper tax filing, only, ever), the Legislature is always looking for reasons to lay off a few more people, and large swaths of State land in DTR remain heavily underutilized such that the State with Kane's or Amazon's help, could consolidate it's employees downtown, in a much smaller footprint. Malik also made a point I think is being discussed in the background, that MLS and Amazon are looking for the same thing...I think such a pairing is been discussed and presented by potential host cities for these things. 

[ctl]

I wouldn't read anything into not mentioning Durham or RTP.  Just be patient. We'll know soon enough. 

[RALNATIVE]

3 hours ago, Jones_ said:

Are there anymore partnership or other private office building sites left on Centennial Campus proper? I'm not sure the outlined area is nearly enough space on it's own but would be an interesting core...

I agree it's telling that RTP and Durham were left off the announcement...

I still also think, in a far away land, that you could cleave off half of the State Government complex and combine it with Kane's new stuff over at West/Harrington, and maybe get the County to give up it's operations center, and voila. Urban campus. So many pieces at the State level make this not a big deal for them including, DHHS campus being sped up, and could most likely be built to accommodate other State personnel, Revenue has been on the short list to move out of downtown for a while now (their building was designed to accommodate paper tax filing, only, ever), the Legislature is always looking for reasons to lay off a few more people, and large swaths of State land in DTR remain heavily underutilized such that the State with Kane's or Amazon's help, could consolidate it's employees downtown, in a much smaller footprint. Malik also made a point I think is being discussed in the background, that MLS and Amazon are looking for the same thing...I think such a pairing is been discussed and presented by potential host cities for these things. 

It's worth noting (again) that Amazon currently hosts its Seattle HQ across 30+ buildings spread throughout the city. I was just there earlier this week.

With the amount of space needed, it's more than likely going to require the same approach for HQ2. There will be highrises, midrises, and lowrises. My guess is that most of the buildings will be located in or close to downtown Raleigh, where their executives, other white collar employees, and some of the development teams will be located. There may also be other buildings spread throughout the Triangle to house other corporate functions.

[DwnTwnRaleighGuy]

Did anyone else see the 5:30 news on WRAL about HQ2? Had an extremely small comment that referenced John Kane’s idea to put this project between The Warehouse district and Dorothea Dix Park...very interesting imho! 

[Isaac]

Where?  Central Prison location would work I guess. 

[Justin6882]

Could The Triangle be in the running for Apple’s second headquarters? 

https://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/news/2018/01/17/n-c-economic-developers-make-initial-pitch-to-land.html

[Green_man]

15 hours ago, DwnTwnRaleighGuy said:

Did anyone else see the 5:30 news on WRAL about HQ2? Had an extremely small comment that referenced John Kane’s idea to put this project between The Warehouse district and Dorothea Dix Park...very interesting imho! 

https://www.wraltechwire.com/2018/01/18/developer-john-kane-raleigh-can-win-amazon-hq2-offers-prime-corridor-plan-for-real-estate/

Here's the blurb about real estate: 

Quote

 

“We submitted a proposal to Amazon through Wake County Economic Development that illustrates the ability to provide ample square footage on a Prime corridor extending from several sites downtown that we control combined with other sites that other partners control,” Kane explained.

“The Prime Corridor extends from the edge of Dix Park through the Warehouse district and downtown through West and Peace, Capital and Atlantic Blvds and to Midtown North Hills.

“Further,” he added, “this corridor could be further enhanced with Transit connectivity.”

 

Essentially sounds like nodes of development around the old LRT line proposed like a decade ago.  Probably the bulk of the campus at Peace/West/Harrington/Capital area since that has the most available land and potential (and also adjacent to the MLS stadium Kane is partners on).  I like the idea of spreading it out which would hopefully spread out the traffic.

 

[Merthecat]

I do think that light rail would be an excellent addition to the Glenwood South/Capital corridor, especially if it connected at Union Station with corridors to Cary/Durham and Garner.  I hope that this comes back to life as a serious proposal.

Edited January 19, 2018 by Merthecat

[Jones_]

Kane has been mentioning transit being needed at North Hills. It would be pretty funny if he ends up single-handedly getting light rail up and running given that his political affiliation's spokesmen have doggedly referred to it as a "boondoggle" for 20 years now. Strengthening connections between North Hills and Downtown is really important for Raleigh to feel like one, seamless place, and it's been nearly impossibly to do with the road network in place. Light Rail would fix that and fix it in a permanent way. 

The Atlantic/Capital part of this must be the Peeden Steel area. Perfect I think. 

PS, I told y'all Peace/West was being dangled out there. 

Edited January 21, 2018 by Jones_

[DPK]

27 minutes ago, Jones_ said:

Kane has been mentioning transit being needed at North Hills. It would be pretty funny if he ends up single-handedly getting light rail up and running given that his political affiliations spokesmen have doggedly referred to it as a "boondoggle" for 20 years now. Strengthening connections between North Hills and Downtown is really important for Raleigh to feel like one, seamless place, and it's been nearly impossibly to do with the road network in place. Light Rail would fix that and fix it in a permanent way.

This could be a fun exercise in the creativity of people on here.  If you had to figure out how to run a light rail line between downtown (let's say the new Union Station) to North Hills, how would you route it?  Would you go straight up Capital and over?  Would you add a jog over to Five Points?  Go go go!

I made a dedicated topic to spiral my above question off from here to avoid going off the rails:

 

Edited January 20, 2018 by DPK

[DwnTwnRaleighGuy]

I just read an article in where Amazon’ real estate chief John Schoettler emphasized key priorities for the company’s HQ2 search at an event that was held at Seattle's Sheraton Hotel on Friday. He stated:

“We look to it being a combination of buildings and facilities probably within walking proximity to one another,” Schoettler said.

I am thinking that the Triangle/Raleigh won’t look as desirable from that perspective due to no one specific area in the Triangle region has the ability to have that much space within walking distance?

I believe that specifically in Downtown Raleigh we have boxed ourselves in (pun intended) with “you can’t build taller than” which really limits companies like Amazon and Apple? Maybe the best thing to do is to wait a few more decades and hope that home grown companies like Red Hat etc will start requiring much more space than they do now. Not that I want instant gratification mind you, but just not so much regulation that we’re almost building a wall around downtown Raleigh. 

[Merthecat]

I read an article in TBJ which reported that both Tripps restaurant locations will (or have already) close.  Given that one is located in Ridgewood (the other in Garner), I wonder if this could be taken as a step toward the apartment building that was proposed there awhile back. 

[ctl]

The Tripps website shows only 3 restaurants remaining, all in the Triad. Tripps in Ridgewood has been closed for quite a while. Garner is gone too, although Battleground Restaurant Group opened their new concept Kickback Jack's across the street.