IBM, one of the Triangle’s largest employers, is consolidating its Research Triangle Park-based employees into one office building and weighing future plans for its sprawling 400-acre campus in RTP.
Why it matters: IBM’s corporate campus has been a cornerstone of Research Triangle Park since 1965, when it became one of the first technology companies to bet on the region.
- The company brought thousands of transplants to the region and provided high-tech jobs for graduates of local universities, helping keep many from leaving the state entirely in search of technology jobs.
Driving the news: IBM told Axios it is moving most of its employees into its RTP 500 office buildings, a multi-building property it sold to the developer Hines in 2023 for $66 million and currently leases.
- The Triangle Business Journal was first to report the news.
The big picture: The move by IBM comes at a time when leaders of Research Triangle Park plot the future of the famed research park, under a plan it has dubbed RTP 3.0.
- That plan has pushed to rezone much of the land within RTP to allow for the potential of mixed-use development on land there, rather than just office or lab uses.
Between the lines: RTP is home to more than 300 companies and spans 7,000 acres in Durham and Wake counties…