Natick

Eight transportation initiatives in Central Massachusetts aimed at helping people get around during the coronavirus pandemic have won a combined $330,000 in state funding.

Restaurants are bringing in far less money for food and drink during the coronavirus pandemic – and it’s showing both the hit the industry has taken this year as well as the financial toll declining tax revenue will have on cities and towns.

From the high-end Natick Mall to Solomon Pond Mall to the Mall at Whitney Field and elsewhere, retail plazas already struggling with closing chains are now facing an even more uncertain future because of the pandemic.

The discount supermarket chain Aldi has moved into Natick with a new store in the Cloverleaf Plaza across from the Natick Mall.

A new medical marijuana dispensary has opened at 13 Mercer Road in Natick.

The Gov. Charlie Baker Administration announced this fall 13 Central Massachusetts communities would split $1.25 million in Shared Streets and Spaces emergency grants, in order to make roads more pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly, part of $10 million handed out statewide.

Eastern Insurance Group LLC of Natick, a subsidiary of Boston-based Eastern Bank, announced on Wednesday it has acquired the assets of Auburn Insurance Agency, Inc.

The office market in Framingham and Natick is poised to have more than 100,000 square feet of office space available for sublease as some notable tenants give up capacity during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a regional property report released Tuesday.

Lookout Farm spoke with WBJ about how its brew operations work in conjunction with the farming side of business, as well as what it’s been like weathering the coronavirus pandemic.

The coronavirus pandemic has been not only a health challenge to hospitals in Central Massachusetts and beyond, but also a financial one. Fortunately for the larger Central Massachusetts hospitals, they came into 2020 with healthy financials.