Published: Sun, Aug. 31, 2008 04:15AM

Modified Sun, Aug. 31, 2008 04:26AM

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The center's opening also comes at a time when high gas prices and disillusionment with the suburbs is causing more people to embrace the idea of living and working in a city center.

In coming months a handful of commercial and residential projects are expected to bring more people downtown.

Next month RBC Bank moves into its brand new 33-story tower at Fayetteville and Martin Streets. The building, RBC Plaza, includes offices, stores and 186 condominiums. Two other condo projects, 222 Glenwood and West on North, are scheduled to open by the end of the year.

By Jan. 1, 2010, the city expects to have at least 1,323 condos downtown, more than four times what it had when the new convention center was approved in 2004.

"You used to hear people say, why would anyone want to have a convention in Raleigh?" said Smedes York, a developer and former Raleigh mayor. "Now it's almost like why would people not want to have one here. It's been that dramatic of a change."

Press notices help

Laurie Okun, director of sales for the convention center, said the most helpful thing for her team has been all the accolades Raleigh has been getting from such publications as Forbes and Kiplinger's.

"People outside of our area think we've got more going on than the people who live here," she said.

Still, even with downtown's resurgence and an avalanche of good press, the area around the convention center remains a work in progress.

Conventioneers hoping to find an abundance of shopping options within walking distance will be disappointed. Other key downtown projects, such as the City Plaza meeting area at the south end of Fayetteville Street, won't be finished until the middle of next year.

Mitchell Silver, the city planning director, admits he's curious about what convention center visitors will think of the city.

"They're going to want to know what is there to do here," Silver said. "They will be tough critics."

In January, Raleigh plans to start a free downtown circulator bus route that will allow people to get from the convention center to other areas near Fayetteville Street, such as Glenwood South's restaurant row.

Krupa points to N.C. State's Centennial Campus, where an Arnold Palmer-designed golf course will soon open, as an example of the unique amenities that Raleigh will offer visitors.

Such attractions may not seem glamorous, but Krupa said Raleigh's not pitching itself simply as a great place to party.

"Our conventioneers aren't throwing water balloons out the window," he said. "They're serious about education and training and getting information."

Most events in-state

More than 60 percent of the center's 135 booked events are state conferences or conventions. Okun said representatives of NCSU, Research Triangle Park and other Triangle institutions have helped the center land business that ties in naturally with what is already going on in the region.

Next month as many as 1,800 members of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education will arrive in Raleigh for their biennial convention.

Julian Dautremont-Smith, the association's associate director, said Raleigh was chosen because of the sustainability work being done at Duke and N.C. State, and because the convention center is a green building.

"We were looking for a convention center that had green practices and was willing to work with us to put on a sustainable convention," Dautremont-Smith said.

At least in the short term, the center's ability to attract bigger events will be hampered by a shortage of downtown hotel rooms. The construction of about 500 planned rooms has been delayed as developers struggle to get financing in an unforgiving lending environment.

Until those projects are completed, there will not be enough rooms to support the center's capacity of 5,000 people. At the moment, Raleigh's biggest competitor is the Greensboro Convention Center, which has has far less square footage than Raleigh's center but more hotel rooms.

Heywood Sanders, a professor of public administration at the University of Texas at San Antonio, said too often cities don't level with themselves about whether their convention center is delivering an economic return that justifies its cost.

"The question is how many real conventions did you have," he said. "How many out-of-towners did you bring in?"