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6 Worcester Business Journal | November 3, 2025 | wbjournal.com ECONOMIC FORECAST 2023 Community Hopkinton 117.29% Rutland 95.24% Bolton 85.35% Upton 81.21% Douglas 73.81% Boxborough 66.47% Shrewsbury 64.09% Ashland 60.71% Mendon 60.62% Westborough 60.21% Communities with most population growth, 1990-2024 Communities with least population growth, 1990-2024 Source: U.S.Census Bureau, Decennial Census 1990, 2000, 2010, 2020 and Annual Estimates 2024 Harvard -43.19% Southbridge 1.63% North Brookfield 1.89% Fitchburg 2.31% Spencer 3.82% Maynard 4.79% Athol 5.71% Gardner 6.24% Hopedale 7.01% Oxford 7.27% with construction of taller buildings. One option is modular construction, in which sections of the building are prefabricated and then assembled on site. at's the plan for an 11-story mixed-use building with 139 apartments in the works for 17 Pearl St, known as e Pearl. Modular construction represents a way to squeeze a dense development into a small parcel, said Rishi Patel, manager of HHM Cube Properties of style, known as 5-over-2, involves five wood-frame stories, typically used for housing, built atop a two-story steel-and-concrete podium structure holding commercial space or a lobby. Going taller requires different con- struction techniques, usually meaning much more steel is required, as well as more stringent fire safety measures. "at con- struction is more expensive, and because of that you start to see diminishing re- turns," Keane said. Rising rents for luxury apart- ments like the ones at the Cove could improve incentives for building taller, he said. "I don't know if that's tomorrow. I don't know if that's 10 years from now," he said. Bringing down the costs of building up Technical improvements may help Rishi Patel, manager of HHM Cube Properties Continued from previous page Springfield, which is developing e Pearl. An added bonus is the speed of construction. "It allows you to do site work while building boxes at the factory," he said. "You're doing more work in parallel