Tight Triangle Getting New Spec Office Space

RALEIGH—Duke-Weeks Realty Corp. and Travelers Insurance have selected Cary for a planned six-building, 450,000-sf office park. Construction cost of the joint venture at the 52-acre Gateway Centre is estimated at $45 million. Cary is a Raleigh suburb located in one of the largest and fastest-growing submarkets in North Carolina’s Raleigh-Durham-Greensboro Triangle.

The first project, One Gateway Centre, a 75,000-sf, $7.5-million structure on 5.85 acres, broke ground this week. Completion is targeted for May 2001. Travelers owns Gateway Centre.

In two separate undertakings, Duke-Weeks itself is building Governors Village, a 67,609-sf, $21.7-million multi-phased office complex in the Raleigh area of Chatham County, and a 150,000 sf office building in Crabtree Overlook. Expected completion date for Governors Village is May 2001. The Crabtree Overlook project is expected to be finished by March 2001.

The vacancy rate in the tight 40.7 million-sf Raleigh-Durham office market is currently at 7.19 %, according to a July, six-month study by Oncor International. The market has absorbed 3.43 million sf in the past 12 months, but new construction has gravitated almost exclusively to the suburbs. New construction in the Triangle CBD cities totaled only 42,000 sf, while the suburbs took on 3.6 million of new space. The mid-year CBD rental rate for class A space is $18.8 per sf.