CENTRAL MASS. BY THE NUMBERS
25
With buyers facing rising prices and interest rates, home sales in Massachusetts have plummeted nearly 25% over the first eight months of 2023. The Warren Group reported that the median single-family home sale price increased 6.2% on a year-over-year basis to $600,00, a record high for August. There were 5,753 single-family home sales in Massachusetts last month, down 23.6% compared to August 2022. In the 139-town area of Greater Boston, year-to-date single family home sales are down 25.5%. The median single-family home sale price inside Interstate 495 was nearly $760,000 in August and stood at $720,000 year-to-date.
110
The CVS Pharmacy at 110 Front St. is closing Nov. 1, the company confirmed last week. The downtown Worcester location, across from City Hall and on the same block as the Mercantile Center, is a convenience store and pharmacy. The Front Street location was previously a part of Worcester Common Outlets, an indoor mall that was once at the base of the Mercantile Center. CVS moved to its current location in 2005. All prescriptions at the store will be transferred to the CVS at 400 Park Ave., although customers can choose to fill their prescriptions at any CVS location.
18
Massachusetts' growing biopharma workforce is expanding beyond Cambridge's life sciences hub and into Suffolk and Worcester counties, according to a new industry-sponsored report. MassBio said in its industry snapshot that its membership has spread out from Cambridge and Boston at an unprecedented rate. The state's biopharma industry had nearly 114,000 employees in 2022, compared to 106,779 in 2021, the report said. In Worcester County, the biomanufacturing workforce grew by 18%, while the research and development workforce in Suffolk County increased by 17%, according to the report.
1
With the city finding that Unum did not meet the obligations of a tax incremental finance agreement to relocate hundreds of jobs to a downtown 1 Mercantile St. property, the City Council unanimously voted to decertify the property's TIF agreement. In 2020, Unum announced that it decided to transition its then-400 employees to a permanent remote-work plan. In a communication with the City Council, City Manager Eric D. Batista said Unum's work model has not had the promised economic benefits of building out the 214,000-square-foot building. A June report showed that the insurance company has 331 remote employees and only 65 were Worcester residents, Batista wrote.
25
Twenty-five years ago Larry Davis came up with the idea of a "mega maze" on his farm in Sterling. “Back then it was kind of a bizarre idea,” Davis said. Today, Davis Mega Maze is one of Massachusetts' top attractions, a world-renowned destination for families to spend their fall weekends, and will celebrate its 25th anniversary when it reopens at the end of the month. While the maze is the main attraction, Davis and his team have created somewhat of a festival around it. The festival includes a zip line, laser tag, inflatables, pedal carts and Kansas City barbecue. The maze will run until Oct. 29.