Downtown Windsor could soon see a formal proposal for 100 apartments to replace a car-oriented shopping plaza facing the town green.

Developer Greg Vaca has asked the town to pursue a $2.5 million state transit-oriented development grant to hep finance his plans to redevelop 144-152 Broad St. into three residential buildings with ground-floor retail, according to a memo town officials presented to Windsor’s Town Council last month. The Hartford Courant first reported on Vaca’s development plans.

The grant is part of the state’s CT Communities Challenge program.

Plans included with the memo show a two-phase project. The first phase would see 40 apartments with eight 695-square-foot, ground-floor commercial units rise on the shopping plaza’s parking lot. A two-building second phase containing the remaining 60 units would then be built where the plaza’s shops currently stand once current tenants have been relocated. Eight apartments would be set aside for residents earning 80 percent of the area median income.

In the memo, town officials praise Vaca’s proposal as a fulfillment of the town’s master plan, which calls for the 144-152 Broad St. site to be redeveloped along with others nearby to add “hundreds” of new homes in the village center, which is home to a Hartford Line and Amtrak train station, to help boost local businesses.