North Carolina鈥檚 congressional delegation celebrated a local win in the Triangle Thursday. Through bipartisan advocacy, the Research Triangle Park now has door-to-door mail delivery service from the U.S. Postal Service.
Andrew Holton became the executive vice president and chief operating officer of the Research Triangle Foundation last fall. Holton said when he took the role, he had to ask himself:
鈥淲hy do we not have mail in RTP? And the answer is fairly simple. We were a rural area that evolved pretty quickly to be this office park,鈥� Holton said. 鈥淚nfrastructure came in, but for a while we could exist very happily having a centralized post office around which the companies orbited.鈥�
鈥淏ut we've grown over the last 65 years,鈥� Holton added. 鈥淲e now represent 385 companies, 55,000 employees, and over 7,000 acres of land.鈥�
Many of those companies were no longer happy receiving all of their packages from P.O. boxes at a central post office.
鈥淪ome businesses were even contemplating leaving the area because of the burden on their workers and organizations,鈥� said U.S. Representative Deborah Ross. 鈥淏ut in 2022, (the Research Triangle Foundation) reached out to my office, and the office of former Representative David Price, asking for help.鈥�
Ross said North Carolina Senators Thom Tillis and Tedd Budd along with Congresswoman Valerie Foushee also helped push for mail service to RTP.
鈥淩TP is the largest research park in North America, and it's a key economic driver for our state, with companies from across the country and around the world,鈥� Ross said. 鈥淭hey continue to choose RTP as their home base because of the amazing workers and infrastructure 鈥� and mail delivery is part of that.鈥�
Delivery service began in November. On Thursday, Ross and Foushee met in RTP to host a celebration and press conference, billed as a 鈥淵ou鈥檝e Got Mail鈥� party.
鈥淚 meet with RTP businesses all the time, and one of the first things they bring up is how happy they are about this mail delivery service,鈥� Ross said. 鈥淲ell, finally, RTP, you've got mail.鈥�
