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At times, the best solution to a problem is a fresh start. Last weekend, grocer Lynn Cheney reopened the doors to her locally sourced grocery store Maker to Main, this time at 162 Harding St., months after shuttering her Main Street location. Maker to Main originally opened in February 2020, saying it would bring to the “mainstream” the products of local farms: dairy, meat, vegetables and other items. The decision to move came down to Cheney wanting to revamp the store after the lull created by the pandemic dried up the foot traffic.
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The red brick buildings known as One Exchange Place has often been the go-to place for the city’s entertainment-seeking residents. However, since a flooding in mid-August, the building remains vacated after its tenants, among them Michael’s Cigar Bar and Live Action Escapes, have not been able to return to the building to continue their business. Michael Paquin, owner of Live Action Escapes, recounted how the failure of the building’s sump pump in the night of Aug. 18 allowed heavy rains to rise and flood the transformer vault. Paquin said water levels rose up to 16 inches, and that repairs are thought to take months.
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A Boston restaurateur is eyeing the historic Bull Mansion, 55 Pearl St., for an upscale Puerto Rican restaurant, months after a similar restaurant closed its doors at the famed Worcester venue. Hector Piña, who with his wife, Nivia, owns four Latin restaurants in Boston, said a Worcester location was the natural next move. Vejigantes DTW will be a Worcester location of the Piñas' Vejigantes restaurant in Boston's South End. The DTW abbreviation stands for “Downtown Worcester.” The original Boston restaurant was established in 2012. The Worcester location could open in mid-November.
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Turgeon Funeral Home hosted many people, living and dead. Now the funeral home, at 56 Main St. in Millbury, is for sale. Erika Kristal Eucker, president of Media Realty, attached a message joking the property is "probably haunted" to the "for sale" sign on the front lawn of the house. The nearly two-century-old home is up for sale because Turgeon Funeral Home's owner recently retired, Eucker said. Eucker said the home was built in 1850 as a wedding present for a banker’s daughter. It was purchased in a trade by the Turgeon family in the 1940s. It has been a family-owned funeral home since 1946.
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Five former Becker College buildings in Leicester, once used as dormitories, were sold for more than $1.2 million to individual real estate investors at an auction at Town Hall. The five Victorian buildings, all alongside Main Street, were placed for auction after the town acquired them in a 19-building deal for $18 million from Becker College when the school closed its doors for good in 2021. Some of the buildings have been used as the new campus of Leicester High School, while others were converted to shelters for families in need of transitional housing.
This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Business Matters: Central Mass. by the Numbers