Morristown Station, “The Metro” Projects Advance Near Train Station

A long-planned “gateway” building beside the Morristown train station is slated to add 89 apartments, ground-floor retail, and new parking and streetscape changes aimed at reshaping first impressions of downtown.

MORRISTOWN — The long-discussed redevelopment immediately next to NJ Transit’s Morristown station is moving closer to construction, as the sponsors behind a planned 89-unit apartment-and-retail building secured a $40 million construction loan, according to commercial real estate reports and coverage of the project.

The project, branded as Morristown Station and tied to the address One Lackawanna Place, is proposed for a triangular parcel bounded by Lumber Street, Lackawanna Place, and Lafayette Avenue, just east of the historic station building. Plans call for 76 market-rate apartments and 13 affordable units, plus roughly 5,111 square feet of ground-floor retail.

What is being built, and where

Morristown Station is designed as a transit-oriented development, meaning its core premise is proximity to rail service and downtown walkability.

Train Station Redevelopment Area Context

Key elements reported for the One Lackawanna Place project include:

• 89 total apartments in a five-story building

• 13 affordable homes as part of the unit mix

• About 5,111 square feet of retail at street level

• A unit mix expected to skew larger, with CBRE stating about 74% two-bedroom units, with the remainder studios and one-bedrooms

The financing, provided by Truist Bank, was arranged in a deal announced by CBRE.

Why this site has been under the microscope for years

Town planning documents describe the area around the station as a “gateway” to Morristown, one where design choices shape how riders and visitors experience downtown from their first steps off the platform. In Morristown’s Train Station Redevelopment Plan, the Town framed the effort as a strategy for “revitalization of underutilized properties immediately adjacent to the Historic Morristown Train Station,” covering parcels on and around Lumber Street, Lackawanna Place, and Lafayette Avenue.

That redevelopment planning dates back years. The plan notes that the Town Council directed a preliminary investigation of the station-adjacent blocks in 2006, followed by a public hearing and a determination that the area qualified as an “Area in Need of Redevelopment” under New Jersey’s Local Redevelopment and Housing Law.

The Morristown Planning Board approved the One Lackawanna Place project in January 2025.

Rendering of the complete building at One Lackawanna Place. [Dean Marchetto]

The “gateway” idea, in the town’s own rules

Morristown’s redevelopment plan does more than allow housing near the tracks. It sets detailed standards intended to produce a building that reads as an intentional civic front door.

Among the plan’s stated goals: strengthen pedestrian connections between the station and the Morristown Green, and prioritize street-level elements that support an “attractive and enjoyable pedestrian experience.”

The plan also directs designers to take cues from the station itself, noting the Morristown station building has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places and encouraging “abstract reference” rather than literal imitation.

What the redevelopment plan allows: units, retail, parking

The project’s size reflects parameters already set in the town’s station-area redevelopment plan.

The plan’s bulk standards list:

• Maximum dwelling units: 89

• Maximum commercial space: 10,000 square feet

It also spells out parking requirements totaling 161 spaces, including 132 structured spaces and 24 surface spaces (with surface spaces broken down by street and a designated pick-up and drop-off area).

Affordable housing requirements, and what they mean here

Affordable housing is a recurring pressure point in redevelopment across North Jersey, and Morristown’s station plan builds affordability rules directly into its framework.

The redevelopment plan cites Morristown’s local requirement of 15% affordable housing for residential rental buildings (and 20% for for-sale projects), while also describing the town’s allowance for half of the obligation to be located off-site under its Housing Element and Fair Share Plan framework.

For Morristown Station specifically, the reported mix of 13 affordable units out of 89 aligns with the project being treated as a rental building that includes an on-site affordability component.

How it fits into a bigger cluster of station-area projects

While Morristown Station is one of the most visible sites because it sits directly beside the station, it is not the only major redevelopment approved near the transit hub.

In January 2025, the Planning Board approved both the One Lackawanna Place project and another large mixed-use proposal called The Metro at 22 Lafayette Avenue, a 126-unit redevelopment of the Staples strip mall property.

Separately, the broader “M Station” office redevelopment on Morris Street has also been marketed as a transit-adjacent, mixed-use district.

Rendering of the completed Metro project. [Bruce Stieve]

What happens next

A construction loan is not the same as a shovel in the ground, but it is often a key signal that a project is moving from approvals to execution, particularly for a site with long-running planning history.

For residents and commuters, the practical questions now shift to construction timing, staging, and how the project will interact with station access and the surrounding street network. Morristown’s redevelopment plan anticipates traffic and operations review through required studies and site plan materials, including requirements that cover loading, passenger pick-up and drop-off, and other operational details.

Morristown Station is designed to be more than new housing. It is a tightly regulated “gateway” project that, if built as envisioned, would replace an underused station-adjacent parcel with a five-story apartment building, retail, and reworked parking and streetscapes, all in service of reshaping how people enter downtown Morristown by rail.

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