The newly constructed Market Street parking lot was completed and open for use on Monday, November 4, 2013. The project was funded through a grant made available to the City of Morrison from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) Community Development Assistance Program (CDAP) for improvements to the property and by a gift from the Morrison Area Development Corporation (MADC) to purchase the property and secure the grant. The construction was completed by Civil Construction Contractors of Freeport, IL. The construction and acquisition of the Municipal Parking Lot was fully funded without expending any City financial resources.

MADC saw this as a great opportunity to create additional parking downtown for businesses and improve the appearance of the west end of Market Street. Downtown parking has been an issue for some time now. Back in 2010, a downtown parking survey was conducted by the Business Advisory Group and found that during peak parking times, there were 306 spaces available, while 372 spaces were needed. The new parking lot will benefit businesses near the west end of the downtown district, alleviating employee parking issues and freeing up Main Street parking for more customers, shoppers, and visitors. It will also benefit those businesses that before may have thought they were outgrowing their current location because of parking related issues, keeping them downtown, and in Morrison, thus retaining jobs.