A project more than two decades in the making came to fruition Friday with a ceremony marking the opening of the Wilmington Multimodal Transportation Center’s Laura W. Padgett Station.

Operated by Wave Transit and named for former Wilmington Councilwoman Laura Padgett, a champion of transportation issues, the new facility will replace the cramped, dingy transfer station at Second and Princess streets. The gleaming new center is envisioned as being part of a transportation hub that will eventually include a rail station.

A crowd of more than 100, including a number of elected officials and other dignitaries, was on hand for the event. It concluded with a ribbon cutting after an hour of remarks by close to a dozen speakers, including Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo and New Hanover County Commissioner Jonathan Barfield.

Padgett was introduced by former mayor (and current commissioner candidate) Don Betz, who called Padgett “a force to reckon with” during his time at City Hall.

For her part, Padgett credited Betz with the idea for a multimodal center in the 1990s. Such a center was part of the city of Wilmington’s Vision 2020 plan back in 2000. Land for the enter was acquired in 2008 and 2009.