Nearly 50, RTP seeks to avoid midlife crisis.

• Position: Triangle

In the 1950s, state government and business leaders feared that too many of North Carolina's best and brightest were leaving for jobs in other states, which helped keep per capita income among the nation's lowest. As the decade came to a close, they established Research Triangle Park near Durham, hoping to use the attraction of nearby major universities to lure companies with the kind of jobs that could plug the brain drain.

After a slow start, RTP scored big with an IBM research center in 1965. Since 1960, developed space in the park has grown from 200,000 square feet to more than 20 million, and more than 40,000 people work there at an average salary of $76,000. The state's per capita personal income still lags the nation's, but the gap narrowed from 71 % of the U.S. in 1959 to 87% last year. Not only did ... RTP attract high-salary jobs to the Triangle, it helped other parts of the state by boosting North Carolina's image, says Michael Walden, an economics professor at N.C. State University. "That probably gave many other business people cause to look at North Carolina, even if they weren't tied into those RTP industries."

But as it nears its 50th birthday, RTP has, in some ways, seen better days. Employment peaked at about 45,000 during the dot.com boom of the '90s and cratered...