Route 20 funding will help $45M Shrewsbury development
Photo/Grant Welker
Redevelopment of the former Edgemere Drive-In site will get a Market Basket.
A long-planned redevelopment of the former Edgemere Drive-In Theater site on Route 20 in Shrewsbury took a major step forward Wednesday with a $3.75-million state grant to pay for roadway improvements.
Development plans call for the first Market Basket in the immediate Worcester area, as well as other retail uses and 250 housing units. The $45-million project is set to include 143,500 square feet of commercial retail space.
The anchor grocery store will add to a growing Central Massachusetts presence for Tewksbury-based Market Basket, which has long had stores in Fitchburg and Leominster and has added locations in the last few years in Athol, Hudson and Oxford. The company has roughly 80 stores in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine.
The long-vacant 68-acre drive-in site is now closer to being redeveloped thanks to the state funding announced Wednesday, which will enable more than half a mile of roadway along Route 20 to be rebuilt on the southwestern edge of Shrewsbury. That work will include adding a fourth travel lane to that stretch of Route 20 and a new signalized intersection of Route 20 and Lake Street. New sidewalks, turning lanes and on-road bicycle accommodations will be added, according to the state.
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.
While a construction timeline isn't yet set, the drive-in redevelopment would mark the second major recent grocery-anchored project in Shrewsbury. Lakeway Commons, a redevelopment of the former Spag's site on Route 9, opened beginning late last year with a Whole Foods Market and other retailers, along with 250 apartments and 14 townhomes.
WBJ Web Partners
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments