What’s next for Centennial Campus? NC State seeks approval for expansion and growth.

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N.C. State University wants Centennial Campus to go bigger and taller.

The university is putting together a rezoning request that would increase the potential building space on the campus by two million square feet and allow office towers that would rival ones in downtown Raleigh.

The request would seek changes to nearly 98% of the 1,000-acre campus, asking for permission to build towers of up to 28 stories. It would also increase the potential density of the campus from 11.8 million square feet to 13.8 million square feet.

The Spring Hill district, located between Centennial and Dorothea Dix Park, is not included in the request.

Alicia Knight, N.C. State’s associate vice chancellor for real estate and development, said the goal of the rezoning is to give the university more flexibility for how it builds its future.

Centennial was given to the university in the 1980s as a place to meld research, teaching and economic development, and the university has done that successfully over the past 30 years, Knight noted.

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N.C. State University has filed for a rezoning of Centennial Campus.

“We see it as an opportunity for continuing to realize that vision,” she said.

N.C. State University’s Centennial Campus has become one of the Triangle’s most important economic engines.

It’s been a launching pad for some of the region’s largest home-grown tech companies, like Red Hat before its explosive growth caused it to need an entire tower in downtown, and Bandwidth, a communications technology company, that is similarly about to build its own headquarters after outgrowing its offices on the campus.

Original Article Source: WRAL TechWire