CENTRAL MASS. BY THE NUMBERS

$12M

The Blackstone Valley Heritage Visitor Center at Worcester, which opened to great fanfare in October 2018 only to close for more than three years after the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, is once more open to visitors, according to a press release from the Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor. The $12 million center, which was part of a $26 million set of improvements to the surrounding Blackstone Gateway Park and related neighborhood improvements, will be open from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday through Sunday. It had previously been open seven days a week.

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A group of investors with a plan to bring a thoroughbred horse racing facility to Gardner outlined their vision during a meeting at Williams Restaurant in Gardner. Officials with Baystate Racing LLC, met with members of the public to discuss their plan, which they said would use approximately 60 acres of a 180-acre site located off of Route 140 for the facility. John Stefanini, an attorney who is representing Baystate Racing, was part of an effort to bring a horse breeding, retirement and racing facility to Hardwick. That pitch, which focused on Great Meadowbrook Farm, was rejected by voters in January.

$4M

The estate of a Table Talk Pies heir has donated $4 million to the Greater Worcester Community Foundation. The charity agency said it will use the money for community programs including education, family support and those that aid the region’s immigrants and refugees. The donation comes from the estate of Mary T. Cocaine, whose father was a founder of Table Talk Pies. Mary Cocaine died in 2021. She was the daughter of Theodore Tonna, one of the founders of the Worcester-based pie maker. She was a public school teacher in Worcester, later becoming heavily involved in the Worcester Art Museum.

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The city is looking for a developer to buy and rebuild a 4-acre parcel off Shrewsbury Street used by the Department of Public Works and Parks. Found on either side of Albany Street, the land contains three public works maintenance buildings. The building at 26 Albany St. and the two buildings at 29 Albany St. have been in the city’s ownership since 1988 and date back to 1970, according to property records. The city began considering their future after a local architecture firm in 2011 found that they were in extremely deficient condition.

490

Local restaurateurs Jason Lwiss and Mustafa Kurdi, held a grand opening recently for Golden House Grill, a restaurant with Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cuisine at 490 Lincoln St., in the plaza anchored by Bob’s Discount Furniture. With both dine-in and takeout service, the restaurant has a menu heavy on shawarma and kabob platter options, salads and sides such as baba ghanoush, grape leaves and falafel. Lwiss operates Golden Tandoori Bakery, a wholesale business that he has run with his wife, Melinda McGraw, since 2018 out of a shop on Lamartine Street. His partner, Kurdi, is a local auto shop owner and mechanic