The Rockingham Park racetrack will close for the final time Wednesday as owners of the 110-year-old institution prepare to sell the sprawling grounds in Salem, N.H., to a real estate developer.

The property, once known as “Little Saratoga,’’ counts the famed Seabiscuit among the horses that raced there.

In its heyday, it could draw daily crowds approaching 10,000.

But it has seen years of decline and has not hosted live racing since 2009.

The property is slated to become the site of a project that will include hundreds of homes and apartments and bring hundreds of thousands of square feet of commercial space to the town about 30 miles north of Boston.

Salem once counted the track as an economic engine that supported large tracts of farmland associated with the horse racing industry.

“To the people that grew up in Salem in the ‘60s and ‘70s, the racetrack was a big part of the community,’’ said New Hampshire Senate President Chuck Morse, a Salem Republican whose mother worked at the track when he was growing up.

“If you lived it, and your father took you over there to watch the horses warming up at 6 a.m., it’s hard to see,’’ he said of the track’s decline.

Supporters, including Morse, had pushed for years to help the track by adding revenue from slot machines to fatten purses and attract top horses. But the state legislature rebuffed those efforts, he said, spelling doom for live racing in New Hampshire. Rockingham shifted from thoroughbred to harness racing, then eliminated live racing altogether.

In recent years, the facility hosted simulcasts, which allow betting on off-track races. It had also been home to a charity gaming operation, which the track said has raised millions for local causes. Officials are now looking for a new site for those efforts.

The track still drew a dedicated crowd, according to Ed Callahan, the track’s president and general manager, with a couple of hundred people on slow days and as many as 2,000 coming for large national races.

Still, it was nothing compared with the bustling scene that greeted him when he came to visit as a University of New Hampshire student in the 1970s. He described “meticulous greens,’’ beautiful gardens, and a well-kept paddock.

The track once supported 700 employees and 1,600 horses.

Today, the track is overgrown, with weeds and bushes on the lawn and grass gone to seed.

Both Callahan and Morse said they’re optimistic about the proposed development, called Tuscan Village, which could provide something close to a walkable downtown for a community whose major arteries are lined with car-oriented strip malls and big-box stores.

“I’m sure it’s going to be a very attractive development,’’ Callahan said.

“I think it’s something that an awful lot of people will enjoy, but it’s not going to be racing. New England is going to be losing one of its gems.’’

Andy Rosen can be reached at andrew.rosen@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter at @andyrosen.