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Town Center Plan
January 2007
Chapter 1: Existing Conditions
retail uses, substantial access constraints
along these roads severely limit highway-
oriented retail development.
• Carpenter Village has a town center
(“Village Marketplace”), but even this
new, highly visible and accessible urban
development is so far only populated by
a few professional offices, two personal
services, and one restaurant. To capture
specialty retail potential in the face
of highly-accessible competition like
Carpenter Village, it is critical to leverage
the unique, lower-density rural character
of the Morrisville Town Center.
Office:
• The study area is part of a large and
significant office sub-market. The area is
accessible and desirable, particularly for
professional services and small business
owners who do not prefer an office park
location.
• Office occupancy in surrounding areas
is relatively high (90% range), but the
tenant mix in those areas is dominated by
technology, corporate, and regional sales
& distribution. There are few professional
service clusters.
• There may be significant opportunities for
lifestyle-driven professional office uses,
including live-work buildings for archi-
tects, graphic designers, lawyers, medical
professionals, residential contracting &
service businesses (e.g., interior design-
ers), etc. Based on follow-up assessment,
there is considerable reason to believe
that opportunities for professional uses
that serve the growing local community
(as opposed to RTP-oriented technical
service firms) are increasing and that the
Town Center will be a good location for
such uses.
Industrial:
• The study area provides a good location
for industrial and distribution uses (due to
its accessibility to the regional market),
although most such uses may not be
consistent with the community’s vision for
a town center.
Civic and Community Services:
• There is already an important (but not
entirely visible) civic base of uses, including
fire, police, town hall, chamber, church,
and parks. Recreation and day care uses
are located nearby. This cluster provides
the area with the seed of a town center
identity.
• The two gaps in this mix include education
facilities and cultural or audience support
facilities, the latter of which can include
dinner theaters, art galleries, amphithe-
aters, civic & meeting centers, sports
arenas, etc. A children’s theater is one
use that has been proposed in the area
and can be considered among others as a
potential tenant or anchor use for a civic
facility. However, more work needs to be
done to assess the feasibility and long-
term viability of such uses.
In sum, significant market opportunities
exist for a variety of uses within the Town
Center area, but in order to realize this
potential, careful attention must be given to
community preferences and how the desired
uses are supported within the larger Town
Center design.
A significant opportunity identified in the market report
is for professional offices for graphic designers, archi-
tects, medical professionals, and similar businesses.
(Photo: Ben Hitchings, Town of Morrisville)