Image courtesy of HFA Architects

A mid-sized apartment and retail complex has received local planning approval for a site near a long-abandoned drive-in movie theater on Route 20 in Shrewsbury.

The project, called Edgemere Crossing at Flint Pond, has been in the works since 2017 and was proposed by a partnership between Demoulas Supermarkets and the trust that had owned the 36-acre property on the eastern shore of Lake Quinsigamond since the 1980s. A previous proposal for 158 townhomes paired with commercial development along Route 20 foundered amid the Great Recession.

The project will be anchored by an 80,000-square-foot outpost of Demoulas’ Market Basket grocery store chain, and will include 250 apartments split among nine garden-style buildings, including an even mix of one- and two-bedroom units ranging between 750 and 800 square feet for the former, and 1,120 and 1,154 square feet for the latter. According to the terms of the project’s special permit, 10 percent of the residential units will be permanently set aside as affordable housing. The development will also contain another 65,176 square feet of retail space split among three “outbuildings” and a 25,000-square-foot retail space attached to the supermarket.

The project will include provisions to link up to a bike-pedestrian trail MassDOT plans to build along Route 20. The site currently has no direct public transit access but is a 4-mile drive from a commuter rail station. As part of the transportation demand management plan, the development team pledged to make provisions for a future bus stop and hold talks with the Worcester Regional Transit Authority on expanding bus service to that area of Route 20.

Construction is expected to begin this summer.