West Boylston

Boston developer Bulfinch Cos. has pulled the plug on plans to repurpose the former Neiman Marcus department store at the Natick Mall as lab space and is instead working with a fitness club owner to put a pickleball club in the shopping center.

Pickleball, a racket sport played on a scaled-down tennis court with a plastic ball and paddles, has been the subject of much media attention and growing popularity. Soon, Central Massachusetts will have its own indoor pickleball venue in West Boylston.

While Beacon Hill searches for solutions to the serious housing shortage that fuels affordability concerns in Massachusetts, a real estate industry organization wants to see the Community Preservation Act program retrofitted to put a greater emphasis on housing production.

The directory is a list of organizations with a location in Central Massachusetts that support the life sciences industry, including contract research organizations, contract development and manufacturing organizations, and companies providing custom products, technologies, or other services.

Fay Brothers Inc. Vice President William Fay II has been elected Chairman of Worcester’s Bay State Savings Bank’s board of directors.

Central Mass Physical Therapy & Wellness opened its third location in space owned by United Health and Performance gym in Lancaster. Previously, the company had been seeing clients out of its West Boylston and Westborough locations.

Robyn Kennedy, chief operating officer of YWCA Central Massachusetts in Worcester, will step down from her position at the organization to focus on her election run for the 1st Worcester District state senate seat.

Finding stable housing has always been a challenge for low-income earners, but the problem has ballooned in places like Worcester where the average rent is growing about 10 percentage points faster than the average income.

Harmony of MA, Inc., a cannabis dispensary in West Boylston is set to officially open for business on Monday.

Spectrum Internet, a communications technology provider affiliated with Charter Communications, Inc., has doubled the starting download speed of its internet service from 100 to 200 Mbps throughout its Central Mass. locations, according to a Tuesday press release.