After years of planning, Morrisville breaks ground on a downtown: 'The heart of town'

MORRISVILLE, N.C. (WTVD) -- John Del Valle has lived in Morrisville for more than a decade.

"We moved from New York to Pennsylvania ... and we came down here for retirement, and we're enjoying it," Del Valle said.

After seeing the town grow rapidly, Del Valle will be one of the tens of thousands of residents who will have a "downtown."

"We don't have a downtown. We don't have a main street," Morrisville Mayor TJ Cawley said. "So we identified this area of town right in our town center campus as a place that it would be great to create that."

Cawley was among the town leaders to celebrate the groundbreaking on Wednesday for the first phase of the Town Center development on Town Hall Drive.

He said it took years of planning to establish downtown. Although town leaders have made improvements to infrastructure, such as a new traffic circle and stormwater improvements, the ultimate 25-acre project will serve the town of about 30,000 residents with what some say is an "iconic space."

"We're building a downtown, but we're really building a place for people to come and visit and interact and socialize," Town Manager Brandon Zuidema said.

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The first phase of the plan will feature a four-story apartment complex, retail, and a new community park with space for live music.

Cawley said this will be the "heart of the town," hoping to see the future phases include building a main street and a community center. He said he anticipates the first phase of construction to be completed in two years.

"The fact that we don't really have an iconic space in Morrisville where people can think of "What is Morrisville?"" Cawley said. "It's kind of like Cary has their downtown park, now people will think of our Town Center and our Town Green as Morrisville."

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