🤗 Ahhh. Friday.

☀️ Today's weather: Sunny and hot. High in the low 90s. Low around 69.

• Weekend rains will cool things down a bit.

🎂 Happy birthday to our members Howard Tescher, Ashton Fisher, Benjamin Gildin and Terry Stelter!

Today’s newsletter is 883 words — a 3.5-minute read.

Tidal Real Estate Partners, the New York developer that just completed a $36 million renovation of the former Holiday Inn, isn't slowing down its work in downtown Raleigh.

Why it matters: The real estate company plans to break ground as soon as the next 60 days on a 20-story tower at 521 S. Wilmington St., Tidal's CEO Mick Walsdorf told Axios.

• Tidal, which owns land across three separate areas in downtown, is betting big on downtown's momentum growing over the next decade, he said.

Driving the news: Tidal, which operates in New York and other Southeastern cities, entered the Raleigh market in 2021, splashing large sums on the former Holiday Inn, land near CAM Raleigh in the Warehouse District and the Lincoln Theatre on Wilmington Street.

What's next: Walsdorf said that Tidal's next priority is its Wilmington Street project.

• That project — billed as 20 stories with 374 apartments and 20,000 square feet of ground-floor retail — will be built on a parking lot near the under-construction Omni Hotel and Martin Marietta Center for the Performing Arts.

After that, Walsdorf said, it hopes to begin work on the gravel lot that is adjacent to the new Hotel Indigo.

• Tidal is not ready to say what it plans for that lot, but it has an idea in mind. Earlier this year, though, it did file plans for another hotel project on that lot.

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SAS Institute, the multibillion-dollar analytics company born in the labs of N.C. State, will help launch a new AI think tank at the university, its CEO Jim Goodnight said last night.

Why it matters: The partnership aims to improve health outcomes and agricultural practices and to create safety frameworks around the use of AI in those areas.

• SAS' analytical model was originally created at N.C. State to find a better way to analyze agricultural data. Since then, it has evolved into creating analytics software for myriad industries and in recent years has invested heavily in new AI capabilities.

What they're saying: "The next generation of innovators will need more than powerful technology. They'll need the judgment to use it responsibly," Goodnight said in a statement.

Zoom in: One of the first efforts the think tank will focus on is how to use AI to better predict how diseases and treatments for those diseases behave in humans.

• Researchers at N.C. State hope to sync studies in living organisms with advanced lab studies looking at small versions of organs grown from cells.
• The hope is that creating better predictive models in these settings will help scientists discover therapies faster and at a lower cost.

Yes, but: Conventional AI models can struggle in the current environment because the small-organ models come from a relatively small set of biological subjects, according to SAS, leading to analysis that can struggle to hold up across studies or from one biological system to another.

• The SAS-N.C. State think tank hopes to create new analytical systems to account for these challenges.

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🎰 Raleigh police went undercover to shut down a video gambling parlor in Northeast Raleigh. (CBS17)

🚌 Last year, around 300 students in North Carolina finished high school in three years, thanks to a state policy change that hasn't been widely discussed in public. (The Assembly)

🥐 The former Zest Cafe space in North Raleigh will become Paris Baguette, a French bakery, next year. (Triangle Business Journal 🔒)

⚖️ The North Carolina prosecutor in the James Comey seashell case could be getting a promotion. President Trump nominated Philip Aubart to become a federal judge. (WRAL)

RTI International says it is cutting another 200 positions this quarter.

Why it matters: The Triangle-based research institute has already laid off hundreds of others as the U.S. cuts back on scientific and humanitarian research under the second Trump administration.

What they're saying: RTI released a statement yesterday saying the cuts would help streamline the 68-year-old organization's operations and "sharpen RTI's focus on areas where the institute can deliver distinctive impact."

What we're watching: Perhaps some new investment lies ahead. The Trump administration has been exploring ways to reimagine clinical trials to speed up drug development — an area of expertise for RTI.

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🪕 Get downtown for Raleigh Wide Open, a free music festival with performances today and tomorrow.

🏒 Cheer on the Carolina Hurricanes, who host the Washington Capitals tonight at 7pm.

🏳️‍🌈 Join the Pride parade in Durham at noon tomorrow.

🇩🇪 Celebrate Oktoberfest tomorrow at Cary's Koka Booth Amphitheatre.

🚲 Roll out to Durham's Move-A-Bull City event Sunday afternoon, when several downtown streets will close to cars to encourage walking, biking and community.

🧢 Shop secondhand at Raleigh Iron Works' Fall Back Vintage Market.

🤘 Catch Weezer's Sunday night show at Lenovo Center.

More events

🎹 Zachery has Paul McCartney's "Silly Love Songs" stuck in his head after hearing it in a coffee shop.

🍅 Mary Helen is proud of her tomatoes for not giving up in the drought.

Thanks to Melissa Oyler for editing this newsletter.