Peek into the future of downtown Raleigh's skyline

The future of downtown Raleigh's skyline will be revealed at the annual State of Downtown on Wednesday afternoon, where more than 600 local leaders and stakeholders will meet to discuss this year's growth and future developments in downtown Raleigh.

Also on the agenda: The push for more affordable downtown housing.

Growth in downtown isn't expected to slow down, according to VP of Economic Development Will Gaskins.

"We're in a period right now where we have more units under construction than we've ever had before," Gaskins said. "Certainly over the past year, if you've been around downtown Raleigh, you've seen just the number of cranes that are out and about, which is exciting to see and again will bring a lot of positive change, but also support of dollars to be captured here for existing small businesses."

The State of Downtown will begin at 1:45 p.m. Wednesday at the Martin Marietta Center for the Performing Arts.