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ECONOMICHISTORY High Tech Down South BY DOUG CAMPBELL

t takes a good hour to tour University, and State In the mid-1950s, Park (RTP) by University tentatively called Research Icar. Across this lush 7,000 acres, Triangle Park. few would have two miles wide and eight miles long, This struck Little as a superb idea. are more than 100 low-slung buildings, Even new to his job, he understood a imagined that home to some of the largest high-tech chief problem facing North Carolina’s companies on the globe. IBM, economy was that many of the science the North Carolina GlaxoSmithKline, and Cisco Systems and engineering graduates of its are just a sample of the firms employ- universities inevitably left for jobs pinelands would ing 38,000 well-paid professionals in large, often Northern cities. “I become home here. Forty-six years old, RTP is couldn’t do anything with my work in arguably the world’s premier research chemistry in North Carolina,” Little to a cluster of park, the envy of so many would-be says today at age 75. technology communities and the So Little packed his suitcase and high-tech firms, showpiece of North Carolina’s vaunt- went calling on captains of industry ed status in the New Economy. in New York. The reactions were but that was before All of which does not mask the sig- mostly positive, he recalls, but there nificant challenges facing RTP in the were no immediate takers. It was in Research Triangle 21st century. Employment here is down the summer of 1958 that Little hit pay- Park was born from the peak of 45,000 workers just a dirt when a top executive with few years ago. Many buildings are aging Chemstrand Corp. was visiting the and growing obsolete, with several sit- Chapel Hill campus on a recruiting ting vacant. In a world where U.S. firms trip for Ph.Ds. As recounted by Little can tap lower-cost sources of R&D as and by economist Albert Link in far away as India and China, the ques- Link’s A Generosity of Spirit: The Early tions about RTP mount. It is no History of the Research Triangle Park wonder that when RTP’s new presi- Chemstrand soon ditched plans for a dent, Rick Weddle, was interviewing facility in Princeton in favor of RTP. for the job about a year ago, a lot of In 1961, Chemstrand opened for friends discouraged him from taking it: business, becoming the first major “Why would you want to do that?” industrial tenant at RTP. Astroturf well-meaning colleagues asked. “Isn’t was “discovered” in Chemstrand’s lab RTP about finished?” there. The firm moved some decades later, but Little remains a fixture at Bold Vision In the summer of 1957, the idea of RTP being “finished” was the furthest thing from William Little’s mind. It hadn’t Early organizers of even started. Little was a 28-year-old, Research Triangle newly minted chemistry professor at Park gather around the University of North Carolina at a map of their Chapel Hill, a native of the state who grand plans. was looking forward to finally begin Among them was work as a teacher and researcher. Then Romeo Guest, his department chair asked Little to second from right, use the summertime on a novel pur- who is generally suit: asking companies if they would credited with consider opening shop in a non- coining the term

PHOTOGRAPHY: RESEARCH TRIANGLE FOUNDATION OF NORTH CAROLINA OF NORTH TRIANGLE FOUNDATION RESEARCH PHOTOGRAPHY: existent place between UNC, Duke “Research Triangle.”

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RTP as both a member of its board of RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK causes of human illness. UNC’s School directors and a past leader of many of Public Health, along with then- of its units and organizations. A Gov. ’s earlier support of Spanning 7,000 acres, Research Triangle newly constructed street looping John F. Kennedy’s presidential bid, Park is home to more than 100 research around the southern end of RTP now were believed to be key factors in the and development firms, many of which bears his name. location decision. tap the nearby resources of the three RTP would never have appeared Three months later came news that universities that make up the Triangle: on the map if not for extraordinary International Business Machines in Durham, the careful planning and fund-raising by would build a 600,000 square-foot University of North Carolina in some of the state’s leading figures of research lab at the park. IBM had been the time. Chapel Hill, and North Carolina State courted for seven years, according It began to take shape in 1954. The University in Raleigh. to Link. As Little tells it, IBM was coining of its name is credited to persuaded in part by a UNC professor, several sources but mostly to Romeo Fred Brooks, who previously had Durham Guest, a Greensboro contractor who I-85 worked as one of IBM’s top research- sketched the proposed location on a ers and developed the System/360 I-47 brown paper bag over drinks at the I-40 family of computers and Operating RESEARCH Richmond County Country Club. Chapel TRIANGLE System/360 software. IBM today Legend has it that Guest noticed how Hill PARK remains RTP’s largest employer, with

UNC, Duke, and N.C. State formed Raleigh 11,000 workers at its campus. a sort of sideways triangle. Link’s After IBM and NIEHS, 21 more A Generosity of Spirit relates a March companies located in the park by 1969, 1954 meeting with Guest, Wachovia followed by 17 more in the 1970s, Bank President Robert Hanes, and SOURCE: Research Triangle Foundation of 28 more in the 1980s and a booming North Carolina Treasurer Brandon North Carolina 42 organizations in the 1990s. Hodges whose stated purpose was the Employment leaped to more than need for industrial growth but turned second was Archie Davis, who succeed- 30,000 by 1990. The Triangle Univer- into Guest’s pitch for Research Triangle ed Hanes at the helm of Wachovia and sities Center for Advanced Studies, Park. A year later, Gov. Luther Hodges raised $1.25 million in just 60 days to known around campus as TUCASI, was (no relation to Brandon) established buyout Robbins in 1959. About 20 per- set up in 1975 by the RTP Foundation the Research Triangle Development cent of the funds came from the for the explicit purpose of keeping the Council, which quickly became the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area, but three universities working together. Research Triangle Committee. the rest were from donors scattered Late that same year, the American In a description that holds up to across the state, all anonymous at the Academy of Arts and Sciences agreed to this day, Hodges once described the time. Pinelands became the Research locate the National Humanities Center committee’s vision for RTP as en- Triangle Foundation, which endures on the TUCASI campus. compassing three things: the actual today as the park’s administrator. tract of land, the three universities Chemstrand was a significant addi- An Unparalleled Success themselves, and “… an idea that has tion, as was the official first tenant, the Today all but 1,100 acres of the 7,000- produced a reality — the idea that Research Triangle Institute, a contract acre park are developed. There are the brains and talents of the three research group. But between 1960 and some 120 research organizations and institutions, and their life of research 1965, no other big fish were landed, and companies. There are 13 miles of paved in many fields, could provide the back- people started to whisper about the jogging trails and a “town center” with ground and stimulation of research for park’s prospects for survival. “There banks, restaurants, and a hotel. The the benefit of the state and nation.” was skepticism and paranoia,” Little park requires organizations to build says, summing up the local mood. on only 15 percent of their total prop- Laying the Foundation By 1965, the skepticism was history erty with wide setbacks from the Between 1957 and 1959, the park’s jour- thanks to two enormous recruiting street, making the area seem almost ney from dream to reality was driven by wins. The first was what became bucolic, with buildings hidden from two key businessmen. The first known as the National Institute of the roadway. The total park payroll is was Karl Robbins, a New York indus- Environmental Health Sciences estimated at $2.7 billion, making the trialist who agreed to put up $1 million (NIEHS), which RTP agents had been average salary about $56,000. to acquire land in what became RTP, pursuing for four years. The project, Nobody accused former UNC eventually amassing 3,559 acres he announced in January 1965, was valued System President Bill Friday of exag- outright controlled or had options to at $70 million and remains the nation’s geration when he said: “Research under the name “Pinelands Co.” The center of studying environmental Triangle Park is the most significant

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economic and political manifestation RTP’s favor: “dedicated people, three up each and every single day thinking of will in the state in the last century.” outstanding universities, and a world- about how to add value to a defined set Such is the park’s cachet that firms as class research institute.” But to Link, of companies,” Weddle says. far as 30 miles away have claimed RTP the key is the presence of the research University access is by no means the post office boxes so they can put institute TUCASI — without it, an exclusive right of RTP tenants, but the “Research Triangle Park” and its famed official forum for the three universi- park remains a central hub for inter- 27709 ZIP code on their letterhead. ties to cooperate wouldn’t exist. action among UNC, Duke, and N.C. (Equally, many firms just outside the It is the convergence of the three State, and the university presidents sit official park borders still call them- schools, the combining of their talents on the RTP Foundation board. selves RTP tenants, and they have and resources, that has propelled RTP Weddle sees an RTP where none of become a de facto part of the wider to the top, Link believes. “There is one the workers have to drive on Interstate Research Triangle community.) A ten- unique aspect of the infrastructure of 40 to get to their offices, because ant tells the story of visiting Germany the park unrivaled by any park in this they’ll be able to ride a high-speed rail recently and telling the host that his country, and that is TUCASI.” into the park and walk the rest of the organization had recently located in way. He sees residential development, North Carolina. The host nodded The Future for the first time, inside park borders, knowingly and said: “Yes, we know The present-day state of RTP also along with new retail options. But the about North Carolina. It’s in the contains some troubling signs: old, focus is shifting from just selling land Research Triangle Park.” vacant buildings and an economy that to “harmonizing the knowledge assets RTP’s wider economic impact is no longer seems to favor geographic in the region,” which means throwing hard to overstate. In a 1999 report, clusters the way it used to. Which the weight of RTP — the brand — a consulting firm estimated that more brings us back to Rick Weddle, beyond park borders and across its than $300 million of private invest- who took over the job of RTP presi- wider sphere of influence. ment was generated in plants in the dent after his predecessor, Jim The payoff, Weddle says, will be 10 counties surrounding the Triangle Roberson, retired in July 2004. When that the park can grow so that it during the 1990s. Employment in people ask him, “Isn’t it about fin- employs as many as 90,000 people “new line, technology-related” indus- ished?” Weddle is adamant in his under current density rules; should tries grew from 15 percent of all jobs response: “The reality of the matter is those rules be loosened, as many as in the region to almost half by the end it is just now beginning.” 150,000 jobs are envisioned. Weddle of the 20th century. Here is what Weddle is selling: RTP wants to steer RTP from being known The precise reasons RTP succeed- is not in a city; its area is 75 percent in as solely the home of large-facility, ed while so many other similarly aimed Durham County and 25 percent in multinational organizations to one projects have faltered remains a bit Wake County. Thus, landowners don’t having a portfolio of diverse firms, of a mystery. The timing was good, pay municipal property taxes, just spanning industries and sizes, from with Sputnik’s orbit in 1956 having those of the county. They are also startups to mature cash cows. sparked government enthusiasm for members of the park’s owners and It sounds incredible. The only research. The advent of air condition- tenants association, which is like a big thing keeping people form guffawing ing also made year-round working in homeowners association that helps at Weddle is the position from where the South more practical and comfort- manage growth. Tenants are part of a he sits. There remains nothing else able. RTP wasn’t the first research special tax district whose rate is about quite like Research Triangle Park. So park — Stanford Research Park, for 2 cents per every $100 of property val- Weddle feels perfectly justified in say- instance, was founded in 1951 — but it uation — adding, for example, $2,000 ing things like: “I’m excited and was one of the first, and as such to the annual tax bill for a firm with a optimistic because I still see most of achieved crucial “first-mover” advan- $10 million lab. The RTP Foundation, the world trying to copy the way we tage over would-be competitors. which is funded chiefly by the land liq- were. That gives us the opportunity In his histories of the park, Prof. uidations valued at $3 million annually, to begin to develop the way we’re going Link cites three obvious factors in is a service unit whose job is “to wake to be.” RF

R EADINGS Link, Albert N. A Generosity of Spirit: The Early History of the Luger, Michael I., and Harvey A. Goldstein. Technology in the Research Triangle Park. Research Triangle Park, N.C.: Research Garden: Research Parks and Regional Economic Development. Chapel Triangle Foundation of North Carolina, 1995. Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press, 1991.

__. From Seed to Harvest: The Growth of the Research Triangle Park. Visit www.richmondfed.org for links to relevant sites. Research Triangle Park, N.C.: Research Triangle Foundation of North Carolina, 2002.

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