BREMERTON — Owners of a 20-acre lot at the corner of Riddell Road and Almira Drive in East Bremerton have big plans for the long-vacant property: a 320-unit apartment complex, recreation center and retail space.

The Riddell Road Apartments, as the project is called in plans filed with the city, is planned on two parcels behind Wilco in East Bremerton.

For years the site was the property of the Zarelli family, which developed it and the Merit Mart store at Riddell and Wheaton Way in 1966. The Wheaton Way property has seen many businesses come and go, most recently Lowe’s Home Improvement, which closed in 2002.

But the Riddell and Almira site has remained vacant. The Zarelli family cut down 20 acres of trees on the site in2016 but didn’t say at the time what it planned to develop there. In December 2018, the family sold the property to Riddell Road Associates LLC for $3.2 million, according to county records.

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Tacoma-based Casey + DeChant Architects have applied for a commercial site plan review and environmental review with the city. Plans call for a 17-building development, with 323 residential units, a recreation building and 600 parking stalls. Developers plan to set aside 11,500 square feet for future retail and restaurant space.

The first phase of the project would include 193 units — a mix of studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments — on the northernmost parcel closest to Riddell, according to architect Paul Casey. A recreation center for the complex will feature an indoor basketball court, exercise rooms, social spaces and an outdoor pool and spa.

A second phase would add an additional 130 units. Casey said apartments would be rented at market rate.

Developers plan to protect a category IV wetland in the southwest corner of the site by removing and replacing several invasive species in the area with native trees. Residents would access the gated complex from Riddell Road, and the project is estimated to generate an average of 2,400-weekday vehicle trips per day, according to a traffic analysis.

The apartment complex is the latest in a string of redevelopment along Highway 303. Wilco, an Oregon-based farm store, opened in the former Lowe’s location last summer. Planet Fitness opened in the same strip mall in 2015, and a Gig-Harbor real estate company purchased the old Kmart building in 2018 with the intention of redeveloping it.

Owners noted the addition of the fast ferry to Seattle and the city’s lack of market-rate housing when considering Bremerton for development, according to Casey.

“(Bremerton) is growing, you do see things going on there. It’s something to serve the community, something the community needs,” Casey said.

The project is still in the permitting phase, Casey said, but the owners hope to begin construction sometime in the fall.

Anyone who wants to comment on the project has until April 11 by 5 p.m. to submit comments to the city.