As Business Soars, Buildings Rise

This building boom is the result of success. For example, ClinTrials, a pharmaceutical testing company, outgrew it's old space and will now fill most of a new building.

"They're moving into Weston," says Ed Fritsch, the chief operating officer of Highwoods Properties, "because their business had demanded growth. They're going to double in size from 90,000 square feet to pre-leasing this 184,000-square-foot building.

Building is moving at a torrid pace because most office space is full. Fritsch says that's because of our good economy.

"It's a different market today than the market of the mid-80s when there was over-building, significant over-building," he says.

The country's largest research park is the magnet for all this development, development in Research Triangle Park that has by no means stopped. Here in Wake County a $272 million facility for the EPA is coming out of the ground.

Companies here usually have a heavy research component, and that R&D often demands lots of space.

"The typical occupant in RTP occupies space in the range of 15,000 square feet," Fritsch points out. "The typical tenant around the area of Raleigh Durham is 5,000 square feet.

So building will continue as long as demand does and so far, there's no end in sight.

The Research Triangle Park Foundation is pushing hard to develop almost 1500 acres remaining in the Wake county portion of the park.