Former Research Triangle Foundation CEO looks ahead
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Former Research Triangle Foundation CEO Scott Levitan. Photo illustration: Axios Visuals. Photo: Courtesy of the Research Triangle Foundation
After nearly a decade leading the Research Triangle Foundation, Scott Levitan retired as the organization's CEO this fall.
Why it matters: His tenure at RTF — the nonprofit that manages the regional economic hub that is the Research Triangle Park — was a pivotal one for the park's future.
- While COVID-19 created a groundswell for remote work, Levitan spearheaded the effort to make RTP a place worth driving to, getting the $1.5 billion Hub RTP project off the ground, creating Boxyard RTP, expanding The Frontier, and kickstarting potentially transformative new land-use changes called RTP 3.0.
Driving the news: Levitan, who worked extensively in real estate development for universities before joining RTF, has been succeeded by Jonathan Pruitt, who was most recently the chief operating officer at The University of Texas System.
Axios recently chatted with Levitan over BLTs at Merritt's in Chapel Hill about his time leading RTF and the future of the park. This Q&A has been edited for length and clarity.
What did you make of RTP when you took the job in 2017?
The park has had undeniable success to the economy of North Carolina, but the physical sort of manifestation of it [as these walled-off large campuses] just wasn't competitive anymore.
- So, the two things that the board wanted me to do was to get this downtown [Hub RTP development] going because they wanted to be competitive. Even Cummings Research Park in Huntsville had built a new downtown.
- And we were switching from a financial model which depended on periodic land sales to one reliant on ongoing operating revenue. That's where The Frontier [a flex office and co-working community] came in. We did it for financial reasons, but there was the unintended benefit that we created a place where a third of the companies here are located.
Where would you grade where Hub RTP is right now? You've signed several big-time restaurants, added apartments and signed your first office leases.
We're graduating elementary school and we're heading to junior high.
- Real estate right now is tough. We've been counting on getting a hotel done, but commercial real estate is really in the doldrums.
What made you want to start the process to RTP 3.0 [which gives landowners more flexibility to build mixed-use within the park] ?
There are a lot of [large] campuses in RTP that have been well maintained, but the world has changed. The workplace has changed. The R&D model has changed, and they're looking and saying that AI is going to make it change even more. The realization of that was the impetus for us.
Has the type of company choosing RTP as their location changed?
For the whole life of RTP, it has been the high-tech and research-and-development center. Now, [other parts of the state] have their own thing going. That's been the magic of RTP. The Fujifilm- or Amgen-type projects couldn't fit in RTP. So more projects go to the halo counties.
- But we do have to sort of re-establish RTP's brand as a high-tech R&D center.
- I do think the universities [UNC, Duke and N.C. State] play a major role in that. So I don't know the answer right now. But I'm very hopeful that going forward they figure out what that's going to be.
How will transit look different to RTP in the next decade?
We have to think of innovative ways to move people around the region. We're going to add a million people, and gas tax revenue is declining. We don't have enough resources to build enough roads to accommodate the traffic that's coming.
- GoTriangle's mobility hub is underway in RTP [which hopes to connect RTP via bus rapid transit in the future]. And NCDOT is looking at an Amtrak station adjacent to that.
- Then it's RTF's responsibility to say, "What's our last-mile solution to get you from those transit nodes to everywhere else in the park?"
Will the Apple campus open in the next decade?
I wish I knew. I hope.
Will one of the large AI companies open an office here?
RTP or RTP adjacent, yes.