Drive New Town Road on any given weekend and you will pass a cluster of "Now Selling" signs for a neighborhood called Heritage at Marvin. Sixty-eight single-family homes, priced from $1.5 million to $1.8 million, going up inside the same 125-acre stretch the Village of Marvin has spent years describing as its future downtown. If you live in Marvin Creek and have been following plans for the Heritage District, you may be interested in how its residential development and commercial planning are progressing. Heritage at Marvin is selling homes, while commercial uses remain part of the Village's planning discussion.
Plans for the Heritage District
The Marvin Heritage District is a 125-acre mixed-use area along New Town Road, built through a collaboration between the Village and twelve other local property owners. The Village's own description calls the goal a uniquely identifiable Village Center meant to give Marvin something it has never had: a real downtown. The idea has been on the books since a Strategic Plan Committee formed in 2020 to guide a form-based code and small area plan, and it has surfaced again this year in the form of a Village Community Economic Development Workshop held August 11, 2026, aimed at figuring out what kind of commercial development the district should actually attract.
The workshop returned commercial development to the Village's planning agenda, while Heritage at Marvin is the residential development currently underway in the district.
Residential Development at Heritage at Marvin
Jones Homes USA's Heritage at Marvin community sits inside the district on New Town Road and is currently selling, with homes ranging from 3,031 to 5,242 square feet. The homes offer a current example of residential development in the district, while commercial plans remain under discussion.
One proposal is a developer's plan to renovate the old Crane home and add commercial space along New Town Road. Local coverage described the project as a hope rather than a certainty, while the workshop addressed commercial development more broadly.
Residential Development and Commercial Planning
At a Village Council discussion this year, commercial businesses were reported to generate 1.6 percent of Marvin's tax base. A councilman raised the figure while considering whether the target should be 5 percent, 7 percent, or another amount. The Village's recruiting materials this summer put the population at roughly 7,000. Together, the figures provide context for the Village's ongoing consideration of commercial uses.
The Village's commercial planning is one part of Marvin's broader growth story. Since 2020 the village has added close to 1,000 residents, pushing its population past 6,600 as of early 2026, with about 80 percent of homes valued above $750,000. Longtime residents who built here when the village was mostly horse farms and tree cover are watching that growth reshape the conversation at Village Hall, and not everyone agrees on the fix.
"I just don't believe in cutting trees," one resident who built his home in Marvin in 1983 told WSOC-TV earlier this year, describing why he hoped the village would stay rural even as it incorporated.
That same resident said he would personally like to see bars and restaurants in the village, while acknowledging that some neighbors feel differently. Those differing preferences are part of the broader discussion over what commercial uses residents want in the village.
Road and Infrastructure Updates
The road project timeline is one part of the Heritage District's broader development picture. The roundabout planned for Waxhaw-Marvin Road and Bonds Grove Church Road, one of the intersections most often cited when residents talk about traffic near the district, is not expected to award a construction contract until September 2028. The Village and Union County have already committed to splitting the $1,092,000 local match on that project, with Marvin covering 54 percent and the county covering the remainder, but a funding agreement is not the same as a start date. Construction and completion would follow the contract award.
Closer to home, New Town Road itself, the road the entire Heritage District sits along, has had its own paperwork problems this year. The Village Council rescinded its acceptance of a section of New Town Road in a resolution passed in January 2026, following an October 2025 resolution that had only partially accepted the road with a repair contingency attached. Those actions leave the section's acceptance status and repair contingency as matters to track.
Community Events and Village Activities
Marvin's community activities continue alongside these development updates. Marvin Day remains the village's signature gathering, starting with a 5K and fun run at Marvin Elementary School each spring before the celebration shifts to Marvin-Efird Park for the rest of the day. Past years have folded in:
- A health and wellness expo with a OneBlood donation bus
- Nature walks and garden talks
- A Firethorne Country Club Open House and Art Expo
- Disc golf clinics and animal exhibits
- An evening concert followed by fireworks
National Night Out draws Village Council volunteers each August, and the Parks, Recreation, and Greenways Board has been working through tree ordinance questions and trail maintenance, including StRAP grant funding earmarked for the Marvin Branch trail. A resident survey the Village circulated this year confirmed what longtime homeowners already suspected: people here want the tree canopy and green space preserved even as new rooftops go up around them.
Marvin Creek residents can follow the Village's updates on the Heritage District and New Town Road, and participate in discussions such as Coffee with Council.
What to Watch Next
Heritage at Marvin is selling homes, and commercial development for the Heritage District remains under discussion. The Village has not identified a target for the commercial share of its tax base in the council discussion described above. The roundabout project and New Town Road acceptance process are additional developments to follow.
The Heritage District is planned as a mixed-use area, and its eventual mix will depend on how that planning develops.
If you are thinking through what any of this means for your own property in Marvin, whether that's timing a sale around the district's progress or understanding how nearby development might shape resale value, Your Property People knows this village down to the intersection level. Work With Us.
