The right stuff: Commercial real estate in the Triangle is feeding off world- class anchors, emerging industries and an expanding population

The right stuff:

Commercial real estate in the Triangle is feeding off world-class anchors, emerging industries and an expanding population

Anchored by world-class research institutions and an innovation legacy that dates back to a post-World War II economy, the Raleigh-Durham market’s long-seeded embrace of technology, education and innovation has set the stage for continued development and construction in the face of COVID-19 and beyond. A growing population, stable unemployment rates and a regional approach to economic development bode well for the local development and construction sector. Healthy population expansion and a diverse economic base go hand in hand. Historically, these two fundamental macroeconomic factors allowed the Raleigh-Durham market to weather the aftermath of the Great Recession and are setting the foundation for a robust recovery as the pandemic landscape continues. “We have historically high population growth, added to strong fundamentals that shielded us even from the recession in 2008-9. We just had a flattening of the curve. We did not experience a market dip such as happened in Las Vegas or Miami,” CityPlat Principal Nikita Zhitov told Invest:. “In this instance, COVID only added fuel to the fire that spurred this explosion and the growth of the Triangle market. We believe we have at least another 10-year ride of steady growth and appreciation in the Raleigh-Durham market. In Raleigh alone, we have just under 480,000 people. Its population is projected to grow to 800,000 by 2030. A lot of infill development is required to sustain this growth. While there is not much land left, we anticipate significant redevelopment work and explosive growth in prices, with more than 10% in appreciation rates per year on real estate values.” The pandemic certainly had a disparate impact across asset classes with commercial office settings bearing the brunt of the coronavirus disruption. COVID has forever reshaped the workplace dynamics by accelerating and normalizing remote work capabilities and underpinning the focus on health and wellness across commercial properties. However, the doom-and-gloom predictions announcing the death of office space never materialized. Instead, companies used this cycle to plant their flags in the Triangle region as best evidenced by the expansion of Google and Apple in the local market.

While the Delta variant may delay the return back to the office for companies of all sizes, remote work offerings are, nonetheless, here to stay, tasking architects and developers to envision what the future of the work environment will look like post-pandemic.( )