Worcester Business Journal

6 Worcester Business Journal | April 17, 2017 | wbjournal.com B R I E F S Worcester vegan restaurant to close Vegan restaurant Chickpea will close at the end of May, it announced on Facebook last week. The restaurant, which opened in 2015, at 589 Park Ave. in Worcester will not entirely go away. Chickpea said it will operate as a pop-up restaurant at the res- taurant Bull Mansion at 55 Pearl St. this summer with a limited dessert and grab- and-go offerings for breakfast and lunch. SeaChange lost another $24M in fourth quarter Acton technology company SeaChange International lost nearly $24 million in the fourth quarter, after eliminating more than 200 jobs earlier this year. SeaChange had a net loss of $71 mil- lion in the 12 months ending Jan. 31, fol- lowing a $48-million previous year's loss. SeaChange, which provides video soft- ware for companies such as Comcast, Verizon and RCN, has struggled against smaller challengers and an industry shift- ing from television to mobile devices. T H E T I C K E R 40% Drop in the number of foreclosure petitions in Worcester County in February compared to the previous year Source: The Warren Group 9,400 Source: CompTIA Time since confidence among Massachusetts businesses was as high as it was in March 13 years Source: Associated Industries of Massachusetts Square feet of leased office space added to the MetroWest market in the first quarter 38,000 Source: Transwestern Consulting Group Continued from previous page WPI named 4th best Mass. value Worcester Polytechnic Institute is the fourth-best value among Massachusetts colleges, according to a new study by SmartAsset, based on tuition, scholar- ships and starting salary for graduates. WPI has relatively high tuition costs, at nearly $43,000 a year, but those costs were balanced out by a high graduate starting salary of $65,300 on average, and average scholarships and grants per student of about $20,000. Massachusetts Institute of Technology first in Massachusetts for the third straight year. Harvard University was second, and Massachusetts Maritime Academy third. Estimated technology industry job growth in Massachusetts last year, or 3.2-percent growth WPI President Laurie Leshin

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