DRA Releases State of Downtown Report
“With a booming population and ever-expanding office space, Raleigh city leaders are boasting of a downtown that has bloomed into a vibrant hub for business, food and entertainment, according to city’s State of Downtown Raleigh report released Tuesday.
Since 2014, downtown residential population has grown 35 percent, which is credited for a 95 percent apartment occupancy rate. Co-working spaces have popped up around the city, and visitors to the top downtown attractions — the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, Marbles Kids Museum and the Raleigh Convention Center, among other — has jumped 46 percent since 2007.
”In the last decade, downtown Raleigh has reinvented itself,” Mayor Nancy McFarlane wrote in the report. “Transitioning from a quiet main street pedestrian mall with a small retail base and few residents to the center of a city that keeps finding itself on the top of national lists for best places to live, work and play.
Downtown Raleigh, which is made up of six districts, has now pulled in 13 James Beard Award nominations for chefs and restaurants since 2010, boasts a high walkability score and is home to 113 retailers, according to the report. The “historic growth” puts Raleigh in the middle of $3 billion in development since 2005.
Last year alone, 24 new restaurants opened, and food and beverage sales totaled $223 million — a 10 percent bump from 2016 and 95 percent higher than 2009. ...”