This story was written for WRAL TechWire partner CBRE | Raleigh.

In 2001, the Triangle area had a population of around 900,000. Twenty years later, the region sits at 2.03 million as of 2021, according to World Population Review. In that time, CBRE | Raleigh, a full-service commercial real estate services provider that started in the area 20 years ago, has been helping clients foresee the landscape ahead and seize real estate opportunities.

Barry J. Bowling, CCIM, senior vice president at CBRE | Raleigh, grew up in the Triangle and has been working in real estate locally since the late 1980s. In that time, he’s seen firsthand just how much the area has changed.

“At the beginning of my career, the area received mostly interest from local investors and developers, but as our region has grown and gained more notoriety, the region has moved up the scale in terms of desirability from a national and global perspective,” said Bowling. “When CBRE had an office in downtown Raleigh back in 2002, there wasn’t much residential or retail real estate nearby. If you look at it now, it’s night and day.”

Bowling said the growth in the downtown markets has been partially spurred by mixed-use developments. In the past, mixed-use developments weren’t common. Now, nearly every new building has some mix of residential and commercial space.

Additionally, because the Raleigh-Durham market has become so attractive, more investors and developers than ever are looking to invest in the area — a trend that started in the mid-2000s and has only grown since.

“Before the Great Recession, we mostly saw local developers partnering with local lending for their projects. After the Great Recession, lending tightened up and more institutional financially backed projects would come in and help with funding. This allowed the market to tap into more resources to provide a greater inventory of high-quality assets,” said Tom Fritsch, senior managing director of CBRE | Raleigh. “More recently, we’re continuing to see institutional money and national developers coming to our market to develop properties. There are absolutely still key components of the commercial real estate ecosystem that are locally funded and developed, yet as a whole, we’ve seen national developers enter the market, start developing, establish a local presence and hire people locally.”

In addition to the evolution in downtowns Raleigh and Durham, both Fritsch and Bowling have witnessed growth spreading throughout all of the market.

“I think we’re past the point of no return on new mixed-use projects — that is very likely to continue as long as the demand is there. Now, you can look at growth areas throughout the entire market and see even more high-density development planned,” said Bowling. “Imagine looking at the skyline, and from there you can point out ‘That’s Midtown’, ‘That’s Cary Towne Center,’ or ‘That’s downtown Raleigh and downtown Durham.’ We’re starting to see these higher-density developments that justify the higher rents.”

Mixed-use developments have been around for years and will likely stay around for years to come, but there are already new innovations paving the way for the next wave of commercial, residential and mixed-use development.

“The live, work and play models are popping up throughout the market. I’m hoping we will continue to see even more creative projects with outdoor connectivity and amenities. There are developments now that already have outdoor connectivity and elevated sky decks,” said Fritsch. “Due to COVID, we’re seeing a lot of accelerated thought leadership that’s pioneering news trends, whether that is having more outdoor connectivity, and/or that live, work and play environment.”

While the same level of growth that’s taken place over the past 20 years isn’t guaranteed for the future, Raleigh-Durham remains one of the fastest-growing metropolitan areas in the country.

And it’s not just the downtowns that are benefitting from that growth. Developers are investing market-wide. More rural areas like Johnston County, Chatham County, Nash County and others are experiencing some growth and are poised for even more.

“Based on the information we know, the activity that we’re seeing and barring any unforeseen macro events, the entire Triangle market is poised to grow fairly significantly over the next five to ten years. CBRE has been positioning itself for that growth for a long time, and as a team, we are proud of our local experts who live, work and play here,” said Fritsch.

This story was written for WRAL TechWire partner CBRE | Raleigh.