RALEIGH, NC—Prudential Real Estate Investors (PREI) just inked a $54 million joint venture with Dominion Realty Partners to build Charter Square, an 11-story office property in Raleigh's downtown central business district. PREI is the real estate investment management and advisory business of Prudential Financial, Inc.

“Raleigh has become one of the best cities to live, work and play making it comparable to other tech hubs in popular cities around the country,” says Soultana Reigle, managing director at PREI and portfolio manager of the firm's value-added, open-ended equity commingled real estate strategy. “We chose to invest in Charter Square because of the growing popularity of Raleigh's downtown business district, coupled with the rising trend among working professionals who now prefer to work in direct proximity to the 24-hour amenity base a city like Raleigh has to offer.”

PREI notes that technology sector growth in the Raleigh region over the last decade has largely been focused on the suburban Research Triangle Park (RTP). With 40,000 workers, the RTP has transformed Raleigh into a tech hub similar to Seattle, Austin, San Francisco, and Boston. More recently, Downtown Raleigh has worked to draw employees to its urban core. Its' part of a growing national trend to attract technology sector employees by creating a live, work, play environment.