The News & Observer by Danielle Battaglia

It’s 2024, and the U.S. Postal Service just now agreed to provide mail delivery to North America’s largest research park located in North Carolina. 

Rep. Deborah Ross announced last month that after years of working with Sens. Thom Tillis and Ted Budd and Rep. Valerie Foushee to push postal officials to provide mail delivery to Research Triangle Park, it is finally happening. 

She called it “a crucial milestone for RTP.” 

“Ensuring RTP has the support it needs is essential for the growth and success of hundreds of companies,” Ross said in a news release Nov. 4. “It’s unacceptable that businesses in RTP were forced to function without centralized mail delivery.” 

RTP sits on 7,000 acres of land between Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill. That’s roughly half the size of Manhattan. And it’s the workplace for 55,000 employees of companies, nonprofits and government agencies. 

Many are required to have physical addresses to meet government regulation requirements. 

But the postal service continued to serve customers as it had since the park’s beginning. 

Ross explained it earlier this year as an area with a few businesses on a single road that grew expeditiously over decades with the postal service never quite catching on to the development. 

And without mail delivery, the park’s 375 companies had to use P.O. boxes at the RTP post office that became known for long lines and delays. 

Some business owners tried to get around the chaos by having their mail sent to their personal addresses or driving to post offices further away. 

GETTING MAIL 

Scott Levitan is the president and CEO of the Research Triangle Foundation of North Carolina. The foundation works with the industries, universities and government agencies within RTP “to attract research and scientific and technology-based organizations and support the creation of quality jobs and opportunities.” 

Levitan told McClatchy that the Postal Service brought the foundation and the park’s businesses together to figure out routes, and “specify, purchase and install” the required mail equipment. He said it’s been a positive collaboration. 

Levitan added that mail delivery will expand over the next few months as that equipment is installed. 

Tyler Evans, a franchise owner of Venture X, a flex office and co-working space, said his business is awaiting mailboxes to be installed at RTP’s Frontier campus, but once that’s done his company will begin receiving mail. 

“Once implemented, not only will this be hours less driving and work for us and our staff, but will save $10,000+ annually in costs and lost revenue from the old system,” Evans told McClatchy in an email Monday. 

Evans only learned that RTP did not have mail delivery after signing a 10-year lease and building out a multi-million dollar facility. In September 2023, he told McClatchy that would result in a loss of expected revenue. 

Evans told McClatchy Monday that a few months after that interview, he learned confidentially that the postal service was working to rectify the situation. He was looped into conversations with the service beginning in March. 

PRAISE FOR MAIL DELIVERY 

In a news release, Foushee, a Democrat from Chapel Hill, praised the collaboration between the congressional offices, postal officials and RTP foundation representatives for working together to get mail delivery accomplished, saying it will “support RTP’s continued growth for years to come.” 

“This vital infrastructure improvement will deliver the reliable postal services businesses and residents in RTP need to succeed and thrive,” Foushee said. 

Levitan told McClatchy he’s grateful for the bipartisan support among North Carolina’s congressional delegation, the companies at RTP and the postal service for making mail delivery happen. 

“Throughout the process we have discovered how critical mail delivery is for companies to meet regulatory requirements,” Levitan said. “The commencement of mail service allows RTP to remain competitive among our peer innovation communities.”

Link to full article: https://www.newsobserver.com/news/business/article296177904.html