Growth continues to bust out in the Triangle. Here are 5 places to watch in 2025.
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Five Places to Watch in 2026
The last few years may have had some economic challenges nationally, but the Triangle remains one of the fastest-growing regions in the country (and North Carolina one of the fastest-growing states). Here are five locations around that Triangle that will look significantly different, thanks to that growth, by the end of 2026.
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Scan Raleigh’s skyline and it’s not hard to spot the 265-foot bright-red cranes lifting slabs of concrete adjacent to Raleigh Union Station, just across from the city’s central business district.
Where once stood two mass timber buildings on West Cabarrus Street, upscale mid-rise apartments have risen from the ground, expanding the downtown municipal service district. Today, this fast-growing neighborhood is newly dubbed Raleigh’s West End. Around the corner from historic Boylan Heights, it’s bringing a mix of breweries, cafes and retail shops to this once-obscure industrial pocket of town.
“There’s definitely a lot of interesting activity happening over there,” said Will Gaskins, Downtown Raleigh Alliance’s vice president of economic development and planning. “It will be interesting to see how it evolves and changes over the next few years.”
In downtown Raleigh alone, over 16 projects are under construction, adding 1,772 residential units, 261 hotel rooms and 82,944 square feet of retail space, according to DRA’s 2024 third-quarter market report. An additional 41 planned and proposed developments are in the pipeline.
Meanwhile, growth isn’t limited to the city center. As North Carolina remains one of the nation’s-fastest-growing states, developers are investing billions across the Triangle. And as we do every year about this time, we’ve identified five places worth keeping an eye on as you motor around the region — places that will be looking noticeably different by the end of the year. The list starts with the West End.
The four others are:
▪ Downtown Cary. In addition to the West End, a mixed-use development called the Jordan project is adding to the changes in Cary’s downtown. Split between two buildings, it will add 330,000 square feet of office, retail and living spaces on the southeast corner of West Chatham Street and South Harrison Avenue.
▪ U.S. 15-501 in Chapel Hill, where a developer is building South Creek, a 40-acre neighborhood with an 80-acre public nature preserve. It will add 798 condos, townhomes and apartments and 52,000 square feet of commercial and retail space across from Chapel Hill’s Southern Village along U.S. 15-501.
▪ Northern Durham, which is getting a popular supermarket, “retail village” and 176-townhome community, built by Tri Pointe Homes, on Guess Road. It’s scheduled to hit the market later this year.
▪ The Beltline. In 2025, the N.C. Department of Transportation is hoping to achieve a long-awaited milestone: the widening and overhaul of the Interstate 440 Beltline. It was supposed to take four years. It’s been more than five.
“The project will be in a substantial completion by the end of 2025,” said Chad Winkler, engineer overseeing the work.
This story was originally published January 2, 2025 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Growth continues to bust out in the Triangle. Here are 5 places to watch in 2025.."
