Downtown Raleigh business leaders get creative to make room for more companies
RALEIGH (WTVD) -- When you walk or drive around in downtown Raleigh, you rarely see an empty space or vacant building.
A new report shows we are in a four year business boom, but with all the growth comes challenges.
Just last year, Lisa Stewart and her husband, Andrew Hayden, opened the "Lisa Stewart Designs" shop in downtown Raleigh's City Market.
"We love the fact that it's historic. We love the cobble stones," said Stewart. "This is the first place from out of town that they come visit because they love the charm city market brings to downtown."
They're part of a wave of new business.
Just this week, the Downtown Raleigh Alliance reported that retail business increased 35 percent in the past four years and 19 percent more restaurants.
It's good news, but it also brings challenges.
"Space is tight and so some of the things we want to bring in, more stores, more restaurants, are competing for space," said Bill King with the Downtown Retail Alliance. "So, we need more space down here."
Several large projects are under construction, and new ground floor retail space will be available in the next 18 months.
Until then, the Downtown Raleigh Alliance is getting creative.
"We have other ground floor uses that could go upstairs, like offices, like our own, which could be on an upstairs floor," said King. "So, we can work with those landlords, those tenants and see if they would be willing to do that."
The report also broke down which part of downtown saw the biggest business boom, and City Market, where Stewart is, was not that area.
"I think one of the biggest challenges is getting enough of the foot traffic," said Hayden.
With all the new residential and office towers opening soon that could change.
"We're going to have a lot of new customers for restaurants and retail," said King. "So it's going to be a really dynamic time over the next four years."
The two districts with the largest net growth in retailers right now are along Fayetteville Street and the Warehouse District.
