Yes, and frankly I hadn’t noticed that – only that the thread had become active again. That said, given the recent actions of President Trump there are many misconceptions about what’s feasible with respect to manufacturing in the U.S.
9ed0d5ef-d017-4350-b2f9-68be9205d6e7.pdf (5.9 MB)
embargo is over. here’s your state of downtown 2025, enjoy!
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and you can review online here too
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There’s a lot in this report, so everyone should take the time to at least skim it!
…but I know many of y’all get too lazy and/or overwhelmed, so here’s a rundown.
- Raleigh leads among peer cities in getting its rental units occupied
- Total rental inventory increased by 255% since 2015
- …but with a 12.5% absorption, it’s still not keeping up with demand
As for housing units for sale:
- #4 best large city for first-time homeowners
- $635k median listing price (2025Q2)
- 18 median days on the market (2025Q2)
- 139 for-sale units planned or proposed
Demographic trends are exactly what you’d expect:
…and availabilities for office space seems to still be matching demand; class A direct markets for office space is the lowest in DTR out of the whole Triangle.
DTR’s also had a net addition of 13 new storefront businesses this year, with another 28 on the way.
…though it seems pretty clustered:
As for what could happen in the future, ten strategies were proposed, including:
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Energize downtown core with daily activation and placemaking to bring more people downtown
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Elevate public art to create a unique experience that celebrates Raleigh and North Carolina
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Diversify retail opportunities to address downtown needs
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Position Downtown Raleigh as the Creative + Design Center of the Triangle
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Integrate the government campus with the downtown core
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Create a bold connection to Dix Park
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Design streets that encourage walking, biking and public transit
However, the final report does not explicitly say anything about gondolas or any other specific ways to connect downtown and Dix Park.
The report does pitch the idea of linking NC State’s campus, Dix Park, and downtown as an “innovation triangle-within-the-Triangle”, but there’s no real specifics on the matter except for this conceptual image:
There’s also:
Also, pretty picture (and data) tax payment:
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Pretty wild to think they’re expected the downtown population to jump from 15,000 to 25,000 just in the next 5 years. They’re also projecting 6,500 more housing units to come available by then. Not sure I buy those projections.
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They’re most likely getting those numbers from the State demographers office which also predicts the region’s population will double by 2055 (1.2 million more people, 900k in Raleigh).
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My favorite things from the State of Downtown report:
And this made me very happy to see some thought going into this:
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I thought these were interesting numbers from the State of Downtown report. I just saw these on LinkedIn but I believe they were part of the report released earlier this fall.
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- How does one measure the amount of visitors to “City Market” …? and 2. When the hell will someone buy it from the current/terrible owners and inject some VISION into it???
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It’s interesting Morgan Street Food Hall sees almost 4X the amount of visitors than Transfer Food Hall.
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To be real… Transfer needs to utilize their ENORMOUS amount of space better. There’s still that entire back “coworking space” that is just useless as-is. The Ballroom is cool and I’m glad they’ve managed to use it for some real shows, including Hopscotch now - but that whole coworking space is just a stupid waste and should be converted into… you know… more food hall space lmao
They have a few really decent spots, but take away Burial and (IMO the extremely overrated) Benchwarmers and there’s just not enough there to entice people. And Benchwarmers is about to open up TWO new locations, at that.
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That doesn’t surprise me at all. MSFH always has a lot of foot traffic when I go by there. It’s just in a much more advantageous location relative to the density built around it.
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I like Transfer Co better but it’s more isolated. Needs more density built around it–which will happen eventually.
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Fine print on the chart says it’s based on cell phone data. My bet is that it includes everything there such as Artspace (which gets a big number on First Friday), Market Hall (special events) plus every store and restaurant in there combined.
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Cell phone data probably excludes children as I feel the numbers for Marbles and NCMNS is a bit low. At the same time, adults are the ones spending the money so that’s what probably matters to those really digging into these numbers.
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That’s a good point. I bet a good chunk of Marbles numbers are thanks to people going to the IMAX. If they could supplement this data with door entry numbers, they’d have a more accurate report.
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25K! That’s what I’m talking about!
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This may not be quite the right thread, but I saw on the mayor of Cary’s blog that the state legislature ended or is ending the ability of municipalities to force a one-year waiting period on failed rezonings. I don’t have anymore details if or when this is effective, but I assume it would apply to Raleigh as well. I hadn’t heard about that yet.
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Some quick Google searching, and that might be this House Bill. Looks like it has passed, and become law.
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