Gateway Redux

Oh...another swing, and another miss. The batter is down in the count 0 and 2.

He's really been struggling out there today. He just doesn't seem to have his rhythm down. He's really fighting hard to stay out of a slump. This is a batter with Hall of Fame stats who puts his all into every play.

Right you are. Here's the windup...and here's the pitch...

But instead of a mano-a-mano style duel between a pitcher and a batter, this is between Dan Jones and the Penn Jersey group versus a divided Morrisville, the Morrisville of the past and the Morrisville of the future.

I give Dan Jones high marks for his tenacity and perseverance. He's been metaphorically shot at and beaten down twice now, yet he's still standing. He's still looking to develop a more robust Morrisville of the future.

Dan: God bless. You're working with a borough council that is spineless at best. There's not very many leaders down there on Union Street, and we're sadly losing one of them. [Shout out to George Bolos: We need many many more visionaries like you on council.] I wish you exceedingly well on this third try to bring business back to Morrisville and I hope everyone supports you just as deeply as you're supporting Morrisville!


Developer proposes new site
By DANNY ADLER

A Morrisville developer, who had proposed the polarizing and now scrapped Gateway Center office complex, has filed plans for another office building at the same spot on East Bridge Street.

The newly proposed office building, a three-story, 20,000-square-foot structure, is less than half the size of the almost 50,000-square-foot Gateway Center, according to plans filed at borough hall by Penn Jersey Real Properties.

The building also would not require an inch of borough-owned land, unlike the Gateway Center that asked for anywhere from 2,000 square feet to 2 acres of land at the southern end of Williamson Park — one of the big issues that turned residents and some council members against the old proposal.

The Gateway Center proposal was killed last month when Morrisville’s borough council voted against the concept of the office complex. Supporters had called the Gateway Center a positive move to revitalize Morrisville’s downtown and aid in tax relief while others had concerns from parking and traffic issues to fears of losing borough-owned green space.

Borough officials said the plans for the new office building, dated June 12, will go to the planning commission for review.

Plans for the new building have it laid out on East Bridge Street between Central and North Delmorr avenues on land owned by the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission. In April, the bridge commission and Morrisville’s economic development corporation reached an agreement of sale of about 1 acre of land there. The economic development corporation would then sell the land to Penn Jersey.

The area where the complex is planned will contain the 20,000-square-foot building and two parking lots with 63 parking spaces combined. Thirty-one percent of the lot size will remain open space.

The plans are available for public view at borough hall, 35 Union St.