New Idea Designed To Radically Change Area Around RTP

Developer Craig Davis dreamed of a neighborhood with sidewalk cafes and a train station to take you to work. Soon, it will become reality.

"It's an unique concept for here and there's no better place, we think, to do it than RTP," Davis said.

Davis' Triangle Metro Center will be in and around Research Triangle Park near Davis Drive and Hopson Road. It will include retail shops, a hotel, the TTA's first rail stop and RTP's first housing.

"You'll have 2,500 units, all of which will be attached condos or multi-story," Davis said.

Triangle Metro Center is different, but it is going for the kind of quality of life people in Chapel Hill's Meadowmont have where they walk from the house to the store.

"We'll have about 265,000 square feet in these quadrants of retail and ultimately products that will be up here in high-rise office facilities," Davis said.

Davis is working with the Research Triangle Foundation, which oversees RTP.

"I think it makes the park more attractive, makes it relevant, makes it sustainable," said Rick Weddle, of the Research Triangle Foundation.

Weddle said young workers demand mixed-use development.

"We will only be attractive to companies if we are attractive to the human capital and talent it takes for them to be successful," Weddle said.

Groundbreaking is set for September. The condos and townhomes will be in the $150,000 to $350,000 range.