Downtown Raleigh employment

[ChiefJoJo]

Is it the often quoted 30k number or is it closer to 40k? WRAL reports, according to the DT Raleigh Alliance the 30k DT employee number maybe be out of date, and the number is actually higher. In the story, they mention that the DRA is 80% finished counting and is already above 30k.

This is of course important for things like recruiting shops, bars, and other companies to the area, as well as determining transit demand, etc.

[RaleighRob]

Good thing to do. Seems no one has an accurate number.

Then, after they do this count, they should work on an accurate number of people who live in downtown too. I've seen references to "downtown has XX number of residential units" but I've been wary of those numbers as well. They probably don't accurately count a rent house split into multiple apartments, small lofts upstairs of street retail, small duplexes, etc.

[ncwebguy]

The problem is the "downtown area" boundaries differ from person to person.

It may be too small an area, but a "core downtown" could be bound by the compass streets -- North, East, South, and West. That may even be too broad. A "greater downtown area" could have "corners" of Peace Oakwood, new Chavis Heights, Boyland Heights and Broughton High School.

But I know some people think of "downtown" as being from NC State to Moore Square, Raleigh Memorial to Peace Street.

The defined boundaries of "downtown" determines how many people work and live there. The differnece between residential *units* and the number of residents is significant, yet several media types do not make a distinction.

[RaleighRob]

^ My guess is that for this tally they're using the boundaries that the Downtown Raleigh Alliance goes by, as you can see on the color-coded maps on their website.

I'm willing to bet 50% of Raleigh thinks their boundaries are too broad, and the other 50% think they're too narrow, so they're probably on-mark.

I personally tend to think of it a tad broader...a few extra blocks here and there...but not much.

I would NOT use the original compass streets of N, W, S, and E, though....for one, most of them have been broken up over the years by railroads. Secondly, there's a whole lot of downtown space outside of them...including all of Glenwood South.

[ChiefJoJo]

From the DRA's map, they include all of Glenwood South, Shaw, and most of Peace College. The boundaries are: Boylan and St Mary's to the west, Peace to the north, East St to the east, and MLK Blvd to the south. I think the only debatable boundary is Glenwood South. To me DT proper ends right about at the RR tracks, but with the growth of Glenwood South, it's too important for the boosters to leave off their numbers. At least it is an urban environment, so it probably can be gerrymandered in. Also, the Downtown Overlay District is another defined--if complex--border, since the code defines zoning within that area.

[ChiefJoJo]

At the end of this WRAL video, they announced the employee count at 42,000. That actually rivals RTP in total employment and is much higher than the previously claimed 30k. Also, that doesn't include increases due to RBC Centura and other companies like Stewart Engineering and Cherokee Partners, that will move this spring/summer. Definitely very good news for future office and condo development in downtown.

[DanRNC]

That is actually a little bit higher than RTP which stands at around 40K now but projections have that number increasing to 45-50K in the next 10 years. It would be interesting to see the nodes of employment concentration in the Triangle. Offhand Duke has 30K students/employees and UNC has probably around 35K. NCSU has about 40K faculty/postdocs/students but don't know about staff numbers.

[Jones_]

At the end of this WRAL video, they announced the employee count at 42,000. That actually rivals RTP in total employment and is much higher than the previously claimed 30k. Also, that doesn't include increases due to RBC Centura and other companies like Stewart Engineering and Cherokee Partners, that will move this spring/summer. Definitely very good news for future office and condo development in downtown.