“The smaller companies that wanted urban services and density were moving out of the park and into an urban center,” said Ted Zoller, a professor of entrepreneurship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. And many bigger companies were not coming; the park lost out on several large projects, including expansion plans by Amazon and Apple.

Other big research and development parks have pivoted more quickly. The board of the country’s second-largest research park, in Huntsville, Ala., recognized in the early 2000s that its employees needed better access to services and created a mixed-use commercial zone. The result, the Bridge Street Town Centre, is thriving, and the park’s leaders are planning a second project that will add even more hotel, retail and office space.

At Research Triangle Park, big redevelopment initiatives have been slowed by planning, personnel and money issues. Instead, the Research Triangle Foundation, which manages the park, has been taking smaller steps toward change.

One example is Frontier RTP, a former IBM building that reopened in 2015 with free co-working space and has since expanded to three more buildings. Offering lower rates and smaller, flexible spaces that start-ups and young companies can use, Frontier RTP is now home to a third of the park’s 300 companies.

And in August, Research Triangle Park broke ground on the Boxyard RTP, a $7 million project that will turn repurposed shipping containers into a food and drink spot.

But the big project is yet to come. The park’s zoning ordinances and regulations have been amended, and next year, the foundation will break ground on a $1.13 billion mixed-use development, Hub RTP.