Shrewsbury planning officials have begun what’s expected to be a long review of a major mixed-use development at the long-vacant former Edgemere Drive-In theater to feature a Market Basket grocery store and 250 apartments.
The $45-million development, Edgemere Crossing at Flint Pond, is proposed to include a total of 145,000 square feet of retail space, including spaces eyed for a potential pharmacy and bank.
Apartments would be clustered in two areas: one closer to Route 20 and another behind the Market Basket. Apartments will be built in buildings with between 24 and 36 units each, split evenly between one- and two-bedroom units.
The redevelopment of the 68-acre property — vacant for roughly two decades since the drive-in closed — will add another major retail development in Shrewsbury at a time when brick-and-mortar retail has otherwise struggled with the closure of regional and national chains.
Edgemere Crossing, though, will mix retail and residential use as some other notable newer developments have in Central Massachusetts in recent years, including Lakeway Commons at the former Spag’s site on Route 9 in Shrewsbury, and Meadow Walk on Route 20 in Sudbury. Both of those Whole Foods Market-anchored developments feature 250 apartments.
The Maynard Crossing development underway in Maynard will also include 323 residential units along with 300,000 square feet of retail.
Edgemere Crossing will require approval from the Shrewsbury Planning Board and Conservation Commission before any work can begin, with applicants and officials expecting a review and approval process lasting months.
“It’s quite a large project,” Town Planner Bernard Cahill said at the initial Planning Board meeting July 11. “There’s a way to go.”
The project took a major step forward last December with a $3.75-million state grant to pay for roadway improvements to Route 20, including adding a fourth travel lane to a stretch of more than half a mile and creating a new signalized intersection at Route 20 and Lake Street.
Shrewsbury itself has committed an additional $5.7 million to build a new sewer main and pump station along Route 20, which will extend sewer service from the project site into Worcester.
The site is owned by a real estate trust tied to two hospitality-industry giants, Stamford, Conn.-based Centerplate and Maryland-based Sodexho, according to its principal members registered with the Secretary of State’s Office.
Sodexho bought Centerplate in 2017, after Centerplate itself acquired in 2009 the Boston Culinary Group, with which the real estate trust owning the Shrewsbury site was first registered.
The Market Basket will be the first in the immediate Worcester area for the Tewksbury-based chain. The company has long had stores in Fitchburg and Leominster and has added locations in the last few years in Athol, Hudson and Oxford, and has another under development at Maynard Crossing.
