How commercial real estate tells the story of Raleigh's promising future

Despite COVID-19 slowing activity in most sectors over the past two years, real estate in the Triangle has maintained a high demand. In the past few years alone, major companies like Apple and Google have announced significant expansions in the state, bringing in new construction and thousands of jobs in the process.

CBRE | Raleigh, a leading commercial real estate firm in the Triangle area, works with commercial clients — from big-name companies to scrappy startups — giving them a unique insight into the local market.

"I’m excited about the Triangle because we have the potential to be one of the major innovation hubs of the country going forward. Our life sciences are top five in the country, our tech talent is top 10 in the country — and it started a long time before today, but now it’s in hyper overdrive, as far as the companies that are here and the opportunities they’re bringing," said Tom Fritsch, senior managing director at Raleigh’s CBRE.

Fritsch is right — these major announcements keep coming. Over a short span of time, Fujifilm chose Holly Springs for a 1.5 billion dollar drug manufacturing facility, Google selected Durham for its new engineering hub, and Apple announced that they’re building a $1 billion dollar facility in Research Triangle Park. The Apple announcement in particular is slated to bring 3,000 jobs and millions of dollars for schools and infrastructure.

Already, the economic waterfall effect is in full swing.

"There are a lot of surrounding industries that support these companies. If you think about hotel rooms, if you think about restaurants, all these jobs that are created as a result of this growth, it’s remarkable. Everywhere around the Triangle, there is growth, and all of our area has expanded from a business development standpoint. Because of that, more people are able to benefit from that growth," said Fritsch. "Innovation will continue to drive this market, and we certainly like to think that we have some thought leadership and are always looking for opportunities for investors and developers."

In Raleigh, the campus of Dorothea Dix Park is a prime example of growth potential and opportunity. The master plan for the campus sought input from consultants, landscape architects and over 60,000 local citizens and will include a massive redesign of the space.

"The Dorothea Dix campus, as it continues to be further developed and further imagined, is only going to have tentacles of growth beyond it. People will want to have a true live, work and play environment right there," said Fritsch. "When you think about what that could transform into over time, what innovation that could bring to our market, I think we’ll see more development around that, as that evolves into a hub of activity."

Fritsch credits the foresight of leaders in the area as a major boon to growth. Research Triangle Park was made 60 years ago, and since then, the Raleigh-Durham Airport was built and went international and Interstate 40 was extended to Wilmington.

Now, the Triangle is reaping the benefits of that thought leadership.

"CBRE’s involvement in 2,400 transactions in the past five years has represented $11 billion of transaction volume, and that leads to so many innovative things that take place within our market," said Fritsch. "It brings more talent, gives our existing talent more opportunities and gives us many more avenues in which to grow our city."

"We can expect a lot of change in the Triangle for the next five to 10 years, and I would argue that the next 10 years could potentially be more significant than the past 10 were."