Worcester Business Journal

4 Worcester Business Journal | October 26, 2020 | wbjournal.com C E N T R A L M AS S I N B R I E F UMass Medical School to build $325-million, nine-story research building V E R BAT I M Inclusive pot shop "The impact of this has and continues to have devastating effects on them and their families, especially marginalized families and communities." Seun Adedeji, owner of Athol marijuana dispensary Elev8 Cannabis, which opened Oct. 8, discussing how the War on Drugs negatively and disproportionately impacts Black men and women Safe colleges "There is a strong commitment from our academic partners to ensure the health and wellbeing of their campus and off-campus communities by instituting strict testing and guidance protocols." Dr. Matilde Castiel, Worcester's Health and Human Services commissioner, discussing the ways in which Worcester colleges are responding to the coronavirus pandemic. Wage laws "Prevailing wage laws are in place to ensure there is a level playing field for those who work on our public projects." Attorney General Maura Healey, discussing a $640,000 settlement paid by contractors from Milford, Franklin and Burlington for alleged prevailing wage violations during construction on the new Sutton police station T he University of Massachusetts Medical School said Oct. 20 it will construct a $325-million, nine-story research and education building for a major expansion of its Worcester campus. e building will be built close to Plantation Street between two existing buildings: the Lazare Research Building and the Albert Sherman Center. A parking garage now standing on the site will be partially demolished beginning in January, with a steel frame for the new building rising by next fall. e 350,000-square-foot building is due to be complete by the fall of 2023. It will join a four-story, $75-million Veterans Affairs care facility already underway on the other end of the campus, near Belmont Street, scheduled to be complete in the middle of next year. UMass didn't disclose how the building would be funded. It has received approval from the UMass board of trustees, the school said. e new building will include space for 77 principal investigators, in addition to animal medicine and a manufacturing facility for clinical trial therapeutics. It is expected to house the Horae Gene erapy Center, the Departments of Neurology and Neurobiology, the Program in BY GRANT WELKER Worcester Business Journal News Editor Molecular Medicine, and the new Program in Human Genetics & Evolutionary Biology. e new space will also allow the school to increase its student body size, something that's been kept consistent in recent years despite high demand from prospective students. e building will connect with its neighboring structures through both raised walkways and below-grade connections. VA topping off Earlier in October, UMass Medical School reached a construction milestone on the new Veterans Affairs care facility, placing the top steel beam into place. e medical school, which held a socially-distanced ceremonial topping- off ceremony, is building a new outpatient health clinic on its Belmont Street campus in Worcester to replace a smaller facility on Lincoln Street. e new VA building will feature 65 exam, consultation and procedure rooms for those purposes, and specialty care in areas including radiology, echo-cardiology, physical and occupational therapy. e VA clinic will take up just over half of a four-story, 100,000-square foot building replacing a former regional office for the Massachusetts Department of Transportation. e new facility will vastly increase space for caring for veterans compared to the Lincoln Street location. It will expand a partnership between the medical school and the VA, which started with a specialty clinic at 377 Plantation St. for podiatry, audiology and optometry services opened in 2016. W RENDERING | COURTESY OF UMASS MEDICAL SCHOOL A rendering of the proposed $325-million research facility from UMass Medical School

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