A paving crew has been working its way through downtown Princeton, laying fresh asphalt on streets that hadn't seen a resurfacing in longer than most people can remember. If you've driven Center Street lately, you've probably noticed the new blacktop, or the sidewalk patches, or the recent infrastructure work. The timing traces back to a sewer capacity limit that had capped what this town could build for years, and to the town's work to lift it.
The short version: Princeton's downtown started filling back in with small businesses well before the town solved the utility problem underneath it. The formal fix only arrived recently. The paving, the talk of new construction, and the sense that something is finally moving reflect infrastructure work alongside a storefront revival that included one coffee shop and a family willing to bet on an empty block.
The Storefront That Filled In First
In 2016, the stretch of South Center Street that runs through downtown Princeton was mostly vacant. That's not a subjective read, it's the number the town itself later used to justify creating a business district: only 11 businesses plus the post office were operating downtown for most of that year, in a corridor the town figured could support at least 25.
That same year, Sharon and Don Creech opened Milltown Java at 116 S. Center St. Neither had run a café before. They took a space in a downtown block that had emptied out and turned it into a coffee shop anyway. A decade later, it's the same family running it, still at the same address, still the kind of place where the staff remembers your order. The shop has been credited locally as the anchor that got downtown Princeton moving again, the first sign of life in a stretch that had gone quiet.
Just Gifts opened nearby, part of a slow accumulation of small storefronts downtown. But the timeline matters here. This was private investment, one family and then a handful of others, filling storefronts a couple of years before the town established its business district.
A Business District Takes Shape
The Town of Princeton didn't create its Downtown Business Improvement District until July 1, 2018, two years after Milltown Java opened. The district's own stated purpose was to formalize what was already underway: attracting complementary businesses, improving the look of downtown, and unlocking incentives for people willing to take on the buildings that had sat empty since the corridor thinned out.
Milltown Java and the businesses that followed became part of downtown's storefront revival, and the district gave the town a formal way to support local businesses, with incentives for reusing vacant buildings and dedicated attention to the streets and sidewalks around them. The two efforts pointed in the same direction, and the district gave the storefront revival a plan to grow into.
The Wastewater Capacity Limit
Princeton's growth was limited for years by a sewer moratorium, separate from the level of demand or business interest.
Municipal wastewater capacity is not a glamorous subject, but it shaped what could be built downtown after the BID was in place and contributed to new home construction moving in fits and starts. A town can have all the storefront demand in the world, but if the plant treating its wastewater is maxed out, the permits stop.
That changed recently. Princeton was awarded the largest grant in its history, a $10,560,000 USDA grant for a wastewater treatment plant expansion, paired with a $2,400,000 loan at 2.375 percent over 40 years, also from USDA. Mayor Stacy Johnson credited a specific list of people for getting it done: grant writer Marla Ashworth of TRC Engineering, Town Administrator Michael King, Senator Benton Sawrey, Representative Larry Strickland, the town's public works staff, and USDA's Kayla Lee, who worked the funding through on the federal side. According to the Town of Princeton, the grant lifts the sewer moratorium that had been in place and clears the way for both new businesses and new homes.
The grant addresses wastewater capacity, while other infrastructure work is also moving forward.
What's Visible Right Now
The paving is the most obvious sign, but it's not the only one. The town has begun repaving a set of downtown and residential streets, with more planned. The town is also working through a Capital Improvement Plan and a Parks and Recreation Master Plan.
Princeton sits along U.S. Highway 70, roughly midway between Goldsboro and Selma, and the town has started describing itself as a bridge between central and eastern North Carolina, positioned along the future I-42 corridor. The town's wastewater-capacity limit constrained what it could accommodate, and the planned expansion is part of its infrastructure work.
The Rest of the Loop
None of this downtown activity happens in isolation from the rest of how people actually spend a Saturday around Princeton. Head out of town on the highway corridor and you'll pass WDW Farms, which the county's own tourism office points to as a stop worth making, particularly in spring when the strawberry fields open for picking. The berries are spray-free, sold by the pound, and the roadside stand carries produce even outside picking season.
A short drive over toward Micro and Pine Level puts you at Ashlan Meadows Farm, run by Boone and Emily Langley. Both met at NC State with plans to become veterinarians before deciding to take over Boone's family land instead. They raise pasture-raised pork and a rotation of vegetable crops, selling out of a small store built into an old horse barn.
And if the day calls for water instead of dirt, Richardson's Bridge landing on the Neuse River gives boat owners a place to launch, according to the county's own visitor guide, one of the more understated reasons people who live out this way don't feel like they're missing much by not being closer to Raleigh.
None of these stops are new discoveries. They're the same loop people around Princeton have been running for years, coffee downtown, produce on the highway, a boat launch on the river. What's changed is that Princeton has received funding for a wastewater treatment plant expansion. The storefronts came first, and the town's infrastructure work is now underway.
If you're curious how any of this might eventually affect a specific property in Princeton, whether you own one already or you're keeping an eye on the area, the team at The Thomas Parker Realty Group knows this stretch of Johnston County block by block and is happy to talk through what the changes downtown could mean for your address specifically.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
