Blackstone Valley

A new L.L. Bean outpost slated for The Shoppes at Blackstone Valley in Millbury will open its doors to customers on Friday, Oct. 22, the Maine retailer announced on Tuesday.

Eight women from around Central Massachusetts have earned the honor this year.

After 40 years of vacancy, the 1-million-square-foot Draper Mill facility is being demolished, leaving Hopedale with the chance to completely reinvent itself.

Roughly 70 acres of land along Lackey Dam Road, and sprawling through Uxbridge, Sutton, and Douglas, have been sold for $5 million to Indianapolis real estate firm Scannell Properties, according to the Worcester South District Registry of Deeds.

Caroline’s Cannabis in Uxbridge, the first woman-owned small business cannabis shop to open in Massachusetts, received final licensure from the state Cannabis Control Commission on Sept. 17 to move forward with plans to open a second adult-use location in Hopedale.

After a lengthy battle, a group of Hopedale residents successfully won an injunction against the Grafton & Upton Railroad Co., preventing the railway from clearing roughly 130 acres of forestland in the town, according to a decision from the Worcester County Superior Court signed Friday. 

A mixed-use, 317-unit apartment complex and retail space was approved in July for redevelopment of Grafton’s former state hospital, according to the Town of Grafton’s website.

After more than 50 years of business, the family-owned Grafton Flea Market is up for sale for $2.2 million, according to a posting on Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices. 

The former home of Hopedale’s Green Mountain Chocolate Co., which closed in June, was sold for $1.7 million to a corporation registered to Uxbridge cannabis entrepreneurs Timothy Phillips and Kevin MacConnell, according to the Worcester County Registry of Deeds.

Grafton & Upton Railroad Co., a rail company in Hopedale which has met controversy with a local developer, received a $500,000 grant from the Massachusetts Department of Transportation’s Industrial Rail Access Program, according to a MassDOT announcement on Friday.