Director of RED Speaks on Panel about Downtown Raleigh
Kyle Touchstone, director for Raleigh Economic Development (RED) discussed Raleigh’s progress during the Downtown Raleigh Alliance’s State of Downtown pre-session. Here’s a look at the information Kyle shared:
Tell us about Raleigh Economic Development and your charge as director.
Raleigh Economic Development has a long-standing history of working together with partners to further the mission of promoting Raleigh as an attractive place for business and talent. Recently, RED moved back to work with partners at the Raleigh Chamber and Wake County Economic Development. Raleigh is the largest city in Wake County and the region's economic driver. This partnership is a strategic move to elevate Raleigh's marketing and the metro's economic prosperity.
Talk about the strength of the Triangle nationally from an economic development perspective.
The Triangle is nationally known because of its research and development capabilities, business ecosystem, high quality of life, and sheer ability to be innovative in almost everything we do. This has been the case for many years and the growth isn’t slowing. The project activity seen in the last 18 months is a true testament to our success. Global companies are selecting the Triangle region and top talent is moving here at a fast rate. As the recently named number one state for business, Raleigh is on the radar of top-level executives looking for the best business climate to run their company.
How is Raleigh and Downtown Raleigh positioned? How should Raleigh be positioning itself locally and nationally?
The good news there are several partner organizations who focus their efforts on promoting Raleigh, Wake County, and the Triangle region.
For a long time, Raleigh has been known as the sleepy state capital, but now, we’ve grown to be so much more than that. We are what I like to say, the hub for private and public sector business.
Positioning Raleigh has evolved and continues to do so. Especially considering the disruption of the pandemic, how we market and elevate the city is changing. One of our biggest assets is the ability to study other metros. The Raleigh Chamber leads this charge by hosting an inter-city visit each year.
As a growing city, we are constantly looking at how to tell our story. Two areas of focus for me are the strength of our business ecosystem and the brainpower. That makes for great marketing.
What are you seeing in terms of interest and activity right now?
We are always tracking interest in terms of inquiries, new companies, expansions, etc. While we’ve seen a slowdown in some sectors, we are encouraged by the uptick in others. We expect activity to normalize as things stabilize coming off the pandemic and unknowns related to a recession.
In the meantime, we are encouraged by recent expansions like Rapid Scale with 27k SF at Raleigh Crossing bringing in 110 employees and hiring 40 new employees. Additionally, Boon Edam, a Dutch company moved its U.S. corporate headquarters to downtown Raleigh and opened a world-class showroom. This is important and notable progress.
What’s your outlook for Raleigh and Downtown Raleigh from an economic development perspective?
Overall, my outlook is extremely positive. We are back on the road meeting with site selectors and business leaders outside of our community and there is excitement and interest in what we are doing in Raleigh. We are seeing some incredible trends as it relates to office space and companies making big moves in bringing people back to the office which helps our downtown businesses. The programming for downtown Raleigh is strong, tourism numbers are climbing up, and there is a zest for being downtown again.
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