Phase 1 connects from 3rd Street to the Love Grove Bridge, with the first 0.5-mile of the trail corridor running along the former Atlantic Coast Railway and the future site of the Wilmington Rail Trail.
In 2021, the City received a grant from the Wilmington MPO funding the design for Phase 1 of the trail. This 1.7-mile segment will begin near N. 3rd Street at the Cape Fear Community College, extend northeast adjacent to Dorothy B. Johnson Pre-K Center, passing through Archie Blue Park, and connecting to existing pedestrian facilities at Love Grove Memorial Bridge. The first 0.5-mile of the trail corridor will run along the former Atlantic Coast Railway, currently maintained by the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) and known within the community as the future site of the Wilmington Rail Trail.
The main goal of the Downtown Trail Phase 1 is to reactivate the unused space in the Northside community of Downtown, connecting to services and cultural assets using an urban trail for walking and biking in conjunction with art, wayfinding, and pedestrian amenities. The project will benefit stakeholders who live and work in the district, the Greater Wilmington community, and area visitors alike while motivating sustainable economic development to the area. This trail will fill gaps to existing or planned trail and bikeway projects, serve lower-income areas with lower car-ownership rates, and improve safety within an area that contains high numbers of bike and pedestrian crashes.