Mentioned in the article, Apple will spend $110+ million in infrastructure upgrades. Probably not rail but I wonder where that money goes.
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Iād assume most of that will go toward going ahead and getting the 147 / 540 interchange completed. Itās currently scheduled but no time soon.
Hereās how I penciled that route in on my fantasy transit map
I actually had a stop planned right at Appleās back door! haha
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The WRAL article mentions that $110 million will be split across the 80 NC counties most āin need,ā and will include upgrades to broadband, roads & bridges, and public schools. Though since they are already contributing $100 million to public schools, Iām not entirely sure how that will exactly split out.
Now how you look at the 80 counties most in need could differ. Do they mean counties that are not as developed and rural? Ruling out counties such as Wake or Durham. On the other hand you could say Wake is need for infrastructure development due to the rapid increase in population. Driving a need for investment in transit options.
In the end $110m split across 80 counties is not a lot, with how expensive projects such as road development can be.
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To add to the excitement, the mayor is having a meeting this week with a US Department of Transportation official, possibly 1 or 2 people below Buttigeig? for funds to help the city prepare for the expansion.
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Which mayor? Thereās like 20 of them in the Triangle. lol
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The mayor of Raleigh
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Excuse me if this has been posted already.
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Hereās the story on Acuteās acquisition in 2018.
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The bulk of those funds will be directed to poor counties. I am a NC born & bred native from one of those super poor counties. Raleigh will be just fine with the economic impact of this announcement. This is tremendous for the entire regionā¦and a long time coming (too long thanks to HB2).
But the poor counties in the Northeast (Northampton, Halifax, Hertford, Pasquatank, Gates) & the ones in the mountains that are not ābedroomsā of Raleigh or charlotte are in desperate need of help and bridging the digital divide is a big step for those counties to at least try to provide some sort of economic underpinning to replace all the factory and manufacturing job lossess they have seen over the last 3 decades.
Thatās why that aspect of todayās announcement stands to truly benefit all of North Carolina. Honeywell relocating to charlotte usa doesnāt even come close to truly benefitting North Carolina as a whole. Appleās announcement his HUGE for this reason alone.
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Here is a more details article about Appleās plans. It even says āApple announced plans Monday to open a new campus in the Raleigh, North Carolina, areaā
Apple will spend $1 billion to open 3,000-employee campus in North Carolina
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Iām probably dreaming, but maybe theyāll use the plot thatās south of 540 for a mixed use development and the rest for their campus.
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That would be nice. Something like the Hub RTP. Iām sure a hotel or two will be needed. I think there is just a Courtyard Marriott nearby. Walk-able restaurants/ retail from campus would be welcomed as well.
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There is already an elementary school there I believe.
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All I have to say is Raleighās got a lot! Lmao
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looks like thereās two plots that Wake had. Thereās an elementary school on the west plot but the east plot is still empty.
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Hmm, a lot could be hiding in that āat leastā 3,000 jobs.
281 acres is a truly vast corporate campus. The big Austin announcement from 2018 was also for a $1B investment, but on less than half the land (133 acres) and accommodating anywhere from 5000 to 15000 employees. Heck, itās substantially larger than Apple Park (175 acres). Buried in todayās announcement was a big increase in its San Diego (La Jolla) plans, which went from 1000 employees (in 2018) to 1200 (in 2019) to 5000 (in 2021) pretty quickly.
Wakeās RTP zoning doesnāt allow for much else besides offices, labs, and trees. Durham had to overhaul its equivalent zone to allow for Hub RTP. The difference between inside-RTP and outside-RTP zoning is pretty apparent when comparing the west (RTP) and east (Durham/Morrisville) sides of 147, between 540 and Finsbury St.
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I kind of dig this as a sloganā¦
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Parkside Town Commons will see a lot of additional activity as a result of this (itās nice but a little sleepy at the moment). And Hub is gonna pop off from this, even if itās on the other side of RTP.
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So does Charlotte. And I think that they would sue Raleigh to keep itā¦Lol