Triangle leaders know continued growth depends on new developments and infrastructure improvements.

• Position: Special Advertising Section - Regional Focus

North Carolina's Triangle -- Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill and surrounding communities -- is working toward a common goal: balancing market demands so that growth will be smart and effective. The equation that will deliver a strong, vibrant Triangle for the future includes weighing the needs of businesses and workers, changing old ways of thinking, solving traffic congestion and planning for smart growth.

Not that the Triangle is doing badly now. Its list of accolades is long: No. 1 Hot Spot for Business Locations from Plants Sites & Parks; No. 4 Large Metro Areas (Raleigh-Durham) for Entrepreneurs, Cognetics Inc. research report, Site Selection; and No. 7 Most Valuable Place for Expansion and Growth for Business (Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill), Plants Sites & Parks.

Historically, the Triangle's success has benefited both businesses and workers. Components of that success include recognizing when change is necessary and incorporating innovative ideas, having the flexibility to change institutional standards and listening to and addressing the concerns of residents. The Triangle's largest concentration of companies is in the 6,900-acre Research Triangle Park, with more than 50,000 employees. The Research Triangle Foundation continues to market the undeveloped 1,200 acres, which means it must stay competitive with other growing markets in the country. Triangle Metro Center, a new project within RTP, is one of the strategies the foundation plans to employ as part of its mission. It provides RTP companies with more amenities and develops solutions for traffic congestion by incorporating a regional rail and bus system.

According to Liz Rooks, vice president of planning and development with the Research Triangle Foundation, the project evolved when Triangle Transit Authority identified part of a 26-acre site the foundation owned as the location for a station it was planning in RTP for its proposed regional rail system. TTA chose the site because it was adjacent to Brampton, Ontario-based Nortel Networks, the second largest employer in the park, and because it also could play host to a hub for the existing bus system. TTA's regional bus-system hub is located on leased property farther west on N.C. 54 in the commercial center that includes the Radisson Governor's Inn. Because the center's owners are planning an expansion, TTA had to move the bus hub. Placing the bus hub at Triangle Metro Center will enable the buses to coordinate with the regional rail system when it is built.

"TTA had also been talking to us and the surrounding local governments about the desirability of increasing the density around its transit stations as a way of helping boost ridership on the rail system," Rooks says. "Because the regional bus hub would be built before the rail system, our site seemed to offer an excellent opportunity to attempt to build a mixed-use development which would exemplify the principles of good urban...