It’s been over a year since the initial shutdown, and Downtown Raleigh is eager to welcome both businesses and patrons back to its streets again.
To do so, Downtown Raleigh Alliance has been working tirelessly to bring people back Downtown as most state restrictions have now been lifted. Through a recently conducted public realm study, DRA is looking at everything from what to do with outdoor dining expansions to activations like bringing in live music after work to enhancing public spaces with Wi-Fi.
“In many ways, people will have choices about where they work from,” says DRA President and CEO Bill King. “What can we do to make them choose Downtown? In the study, we’re trying to tease that out. Is it lunchtime music? Is it afterwork fitness? Is it before-work yoga? All of the above? Are there different things that work better than others?”
DRA has reached out to more than 50 Downtown employers to have conversations about when they are coming back, what that looks like and any concerns they might have. What they found was a broad range—from employers who are already back to those planning on coming back throughout the summer.
Some Downtown companies, like civil engineering firm McAdams, have had the majority of their employees back for some time. While employees initially worked from home, McAdams now has more than 70% of its DTR employees in the office and has hired more than 90 new people in the past 14 months across its five offices.
“We’re a design firm, and while you can collaborate online, it’s not nearly as effective as collaborating over a set of plans,” says McAdams President and CEO Mike Munn. “There’s just real synergy that comes from working together over a plan, and it’s hard to replicate all of those needs over Zoom.”
McAdams wants its employees to feel like they are a part of something and engaging in person aids in that. And happy hours with teammates, rounds of buying lunch and a rooftop with a view overlooking Downtown encourage that kind of socialization and collaboration.
“You go through these struggles, and the community really binds together in a better way,” says Munn. “In Raleigh, we are more bound together in the backside of this. As the workforce comes back Downtown and the amenities open up, I’d say stay tuned. Over the next few weeks, it’s going to get even more vibrant Downtown.”
McAdams is not alone in welcoming the majority of its employees back. Law firm Williams Mullen has had its employees back following safety protocols since last June, and design firm Kimley-Horn asked its employees to return Downtown in April.
“We were so grateful to be able to keep our employees productive and engaged while working 100% from home in 2020,” says Julie Beauvais, Kimley-Horn senior vice president and communications director. “But it also made us realize the importance of culture and how challenging it is to sustain it when you’re not together.”
Bumping into clients on the street, grabbing coffee with a co-worker, or dining out at one of the many restaurants nearby for lunch is something we used to take for granted. Now, employers are hoping employees yearn for those daily perks.
And Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin also sees the value in bringing employees back. “We don’t want there to be a third or fourth wave, but people have to start thinking about the summer,” said Baldwin in a recent sit-down interview with Raleigh Magazine. “How can we get people back into the office? What does that look like? Is it some type of hybrid? Are people going to redo their offices and reenvision their workspaces? I think a lot of companies are starting to think about that. The new buzzword is the hybrid office—some people working from home part of the time; some coming in. But, either way, we need our businesses to start bringing people back.”
By already testing a few ideas, like hosting Dine Out Downtown on Saturday nights and moving Moore Square Market to Sunday mornings, DRA is focused on incorporating new safe ways to get people back out and about. Future incentives include a lunchtime music series in June at City Plaza and a Thursday night music series the City of Raleigh is launching at Red Hat Amphitheater.
“This is all part of a strategy to get people back Downtown,” says King. “It’s been, first and foremost, engagement and outreach. From there, you start to execute.”
What Local Developers Are Doing to Make Sure Offices Are Safe
Feeling safe at the office is something Raleigh residents are grappling with as they leave their Zoom calls for in-person work environments. While working from home is still fairly common at the moment, the workforce is trickling back in to traditional office spaces and it is up to employers to create a more secure atmosphere than what might have existed before.
According to a recent survey by Digital.com, 70 percent of employees working from home are eager to return to their workplaces. Whether they want to interact with co-workers, miss the daily structure or just want a space outside the four walls of their homes, they’re ready to get back into the office in some form.
As COVID-19 restrictions lift, developers are looking at changes they need to implement to create these “safer” work environments. In Raleigh, some buildings are stepping up safety protocol, and, where possible, design. One example is Smoky Hollow’s 421 N. Harrington St. With nine stories, developers were able to make simple adjustments, like upgrading the finishes on the stairs so people who may not feel comfortable in enclosed elevators have a pleasant alternative. The stairs also have their own outdoor access points, so people can enter and exit the building without going through the lobby.
“One of the big design things we are seeing in the industry is a connection to the outside,” says Drew Yates, the senior development manager at Kane Realty Corporation. “That’s always been the focus of Smoky Hollow.
Luckily, 421 N. Harrington St. was already well-positioned for a post-COVID world in its traditional design. Generally, the second phase of Smoky Hollow was designed to be open and airy, with freedom for pedestrian movement throughout the site. This idea was also a response to Publix taking up the entire block of the first phase of construction, which also included development of Peace Raleigh Apartments. A partially covered open-air courtyard, office balconies and a terrace in the amenity space with a large collapsible door open up the building to tenants and allow for the free flow of fresh air. Air flow within the building has also been addressed with increased air filtration quality, dedicated air purification in each elevator and ionized air flow that cuts down the spread of viruses.
Developers have also focused recently on touch-less features. Automated front door openers, motion-activated doors in the lobby, foot pulls and automatic closures, touch-less bathrooms and bottle filling stations all help prevent the spread of germs on surfaces.
Like 421 N. Harrington St., 3800 Glenwood has improved its air quality features and has worked to tackle surface germs. NanoSeptic Skins cover the door handles and high traffic push points, continually oxidizing organic contaminants. Signs remind people to wear masks and follow CDC guidelines.
“We took what we had and were able to get everybody comfortable to get back to work,” says Chad Broadwell, the senior commercial property manager for Grubb Ventures, the Raleigh-based firm that developed 3800 Glenwood. “We looked at different industry recommendations and rolled out different layers to attacking COVID so people could feel safe coming in to work.”
One improvement Broadwell is excited about is Global Plasma Solutions (GPS), a bipolar ionization technology that delivers clean, indoor air with no harmful byproducts. It attacks viruses, pollen and organic compounds and is ozone-free. “It’s another layer to getting people back into the office and to working,” Broadwell says.
“People now are at a phase where they’ve been able to get comfortable coming back to work and are generally following the rules to working in a world where COVID has been more of a routine in keeping their distance and washing their hands and respecting people’s space.”
Chad Broadwell, senior commercial property manager for Grubb Ventures
As more employees share indoor space, building components like high-quality Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value (MERV) filters become important in producing clean air. While heating, ventilation and air quality used to focus on energy efficiency, the pandemic has required the focus now lean more to air quality. It is a trend that will most likely continue to weed out air quality issues in general, such as allergens and odors.
“These are things the industry is learning as things progress,” says Broadwell. “We’re at a point where we’re doing as much as we can with what we know and it will only get better from here.”
