Research Triangle Foundation moves its HQ, opening up land in heart of RTP

The Research Triangle Foundation, the not-for-profit that manages Research Triangle Park, is moving its headquarters from 12 Davis Drive to The Frontier campus — opening up an 18-acre property in the heart of the famous business park home to hundreds of companies, such as Apple, IBM and Biogen.

RTF said Monday that it will move its headquarters to The Frontier campus, a collection of offices that is home to many startups.

The foundation declined to comment on the future of 12 Davis Drive, where it is the only tenant.

In a statement, it said the decision to move stemmed from an organizational assessment done in 2020. Its new headquarters will be at 700 Park Offices Drive.

The move to The Frontier will put the foundation on the site of its ambitious Hub RTP project, a development that is viewed as a necessary attempt to bring an urban-like town center to the center of RTP, which has been an economic catalyst for the region for more than half a century.

The 100-acre Hub RTP — originally known as Park Center — has been in the works since 2015, when Durham County pledged money toward the project in hopes that it would reinvigorate Research Triangle Park from a collection of walled-off corporate campuses to a destination for all of the Triangle.

But the decision to vacate 12 Davis Drive will also open up a large parcel of land in the park at at time when developers are showing heightened interest in the area, home to both large tech and biotech companies as well as small startups.

Since March 2020, $4.5 billion of investments have been announced inside RTP, which straddles Durham and Wake counties, said Scott Levitan, CEO of the Research Triangle Foundation, in an interview with The News & Observer earlier this year. That’s accounted for about 5,000 planned jobs.

The most notable project is Apple, which announced in April it would place an East Coast campus and 3,000 jobs in the Park after receiving state incentives worth $845.8 million.

This story was produced with financial support from a coalition of partners led by Innovate Raleigh as part of an independent journalism fellowship program. The N&O maintains full editorial control of the work. Learn more; go to bit.ly/newsinnovate.