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 With its skilled work force, convenient location, growing population and booming economy, the Triangle has all the components for business success. In fact, the results of a recent survey conducted by The Business Journals awarded the Triangle a five-star ranking (out of five) on its Economic Scorecard. The area was also rated as the No. 1 Hottest Job Market in a 2004 edition of Business 2.0 magazine. Because Raleigh is the state capital, state government is the area’s largest employer. The Triangle has a robust private sector as well, flourishing so broadly that Forbes magazine named it the second Best Place for Business and Careers in 2004 and Entrepreneur Magazine named it the No. 1 Hot Spot for Entrepreneurs in the South. Quality of life is also evident, as AARP Magazine listed the Triangle third best in the country for the Best Place to Reinvent Your Life. The Triangle’s concentration of universities and colleges has attracted some of the country’s best minds. Many of these workers, delighted with the area’s wooded beauty and relaxed pace of life, have opted to stay, enhancing local businesses or starting their own. High-tech firms such as NORTEL, IBM and SAS Institute remain some of the area’s largest employers. Talented medical and research professionals have been drawn to the Triangle’s prominent medical centers, including the UNC Hospitals and Duke University Medical Center, as well as to pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline and numerous biotech research facilities. Fostering the quest for knowledge and information is the area known as Research Triangle Park (RTP). Founded in 1959, Research Triangle Park is the largest and fourth-oldest research park in the United States. RTP, home to more than 100 companies with 38,500 employees in such fields as computers, telecommunications and biomedicine, covers about 7,000 acres and is centrally located between the Triangle cities of Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill. Raleigh-Durham International Airport (RDU) is served by eight major airlines and 12 regional airlines. The airport offers nearly 500 flights daily, providing ample opportunity for business travel and shipping. A new parking garage that opened in 2003 added 6,100 parking spaces for the airport. Additionally, a $350 million expansion and renovation project on Terminal C is under way that will make it RDU’s primary terminal by 2009. Location, and the area’s related infrastructure, has spurred Triangle business growth. Easy access to I-40, I-85 and I-95 allow for direct and efficient ground transportation of products and supplies. Meanwhile, the expansion of I-440 (Raleigh’s inner beltline) and I-540 (the outer beltline) has increased commuter access to the Triangle. Roads such as U.S. 64 and 70 are busy with passengers driving between the cities and exploding suburban Triangle towns such as Zebulon, Clayton and Garner. Wake County now boasts six of the top 12 fastest-growing towns in the state: Holly Springs, Apex, Clayton, Fuquay-Varina, Wake Forest and Morrisville. To help facilitate commutes, the Triangle Transit Authority (TTA) operates a regional bus line with connector shuttles, a vanpool service bringing commuters into the major work centers and a rideshare matching service. TTA has plans to develop a regional rail system using existing railroad rights-of-way. Scheduled to begin operation in 2008, the rail system will connect Durham, RTP, Cary and Raleigh. By 2025, according to state projections, the population of just the Triangle’s three largest counties alone – Durham, Wake and Orange – should top 1.7 million. Such growth forecasts superb economic times and a healthy business climate in the Triangle for many years to come. Major Employers |
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