RALEIGH, N.C. — The COVID-19 pandemic challenged the lives of many people and businesses, including foot traffic in downtown areas and storefront shopping. One organization is trying to increase business, specifically in downtown Raleigh. 

The Downtown Raleigh Alliance said the pandemic had a significant impact for every downtown across the country, including the storefront economy. Some of those places may even still be trying to recover and get back to where they were before the pandemic. 

The Downtown Raleigh Alliance said there’s been an uneven recovery. The group said places like Glenwood South and the Warehouse District, on the west side of downtown, probably recovered at a faster rate compared to the downtown area that includes Fayetteville Street and Moore Square.

The biggest reason for this is because the Fayetteville Street area has more office space, so its economy is heavily built on that. The Alliance said the use of the office space has been lagging, with many people working from home, which is contributing to a slowdown in recovery.

One downtown business said they are seeing this firsthand.

“We have not seen the massive return or the massive influx that was supposed to come back into downtown, you know, with respect to folks coming to the office or working a nine to five,” Andrew Ullom, the owner and operator of Union Special, said. “And we really did set this space up to be much smaller than our first location. It’s much faster, the menu is a little bit different to accommodate fast business.”

Union Special is located on both Crabtree Boulevard and Fayetteville Street. Ullom said since opening the location on Fayetteville Street, they haven’t seen a bump in overall foot traffic. They opened in September of 2021.

“On a day-to-day basis, the foot traffic is flat from when we opened, you know, just shy of two years ago,” Ullom said. “And we are doing everything that we can to reach out directly to folks about catering.”

Another reason downtown Raleigh’s recovery may not be as fast is because there aren’t as many residential spots in the Fayetteville area compared to other parts of the city, like Glenwood South.

“I know that the amount of residential buildings and neighborhoods that are surrounding the venue in south corridor is much more diverse in terms of not just being office buildings that are downtown here,” Ullom said. “You know, our location on Crabtree Boulevard is very busy because we are surrounded by four large neighborhoods.”

The Downtown Raleigh Alliance has been doing more events to try to draw people to the area. Ullom said his business gets busy during events.

“When there are larger events within the city and there are folks that are coming to Raleigh to go to the convention center, to go to a concert series downtown, to come to food truck rodeos, we get busy,” Ullom said.

Ullom said he appreciates that organizations, like the Downtown Raleigh Alliance, are trying new efforts to get people downtown.

“We know that the people are putting in the work and putting in the effort to make Downtown Raleigh more attractive, to make specific parts of downtown Raleigh more attractive, and we’re very grateful for that,” Ullom said.

Both the Downtown Raleigh Alliance and Ullom said having events can help get people to come to the area, but it’s also not a cure for the challenges they are facing. Ullom feels focusing on resources for the homeless population, as well as overall safety, could help change the perceptions of downtown and attract more people to the area.

“There are some recent events that have really shined a light on where we need to focus efforts on on safety, where we need to focus efforts on policing, and providing resources that make sure that people can go out, have a good time and be safe,” Ullom said.

In partnership with the City of Raleigh, the Downtown Raleigh Alliance is working to add new security measures. Although the city said it is still working on a plan, it’s considering bringing in a private company to provide security in some areas of downtown.

The Downtown Raleigh Alliance said it is looking at long-term solutions to bring more foot traffic. One idea is to add more residential spaces, as well as diversifying land and building uses, rather than having an economy built on office space.