Fitchburg

Charles Park Plaza, a shopping center at Airport and Bemis roads in Fitchburg, has sold for just under $1.7 million.

Enrollment at public colleges in Central Massachusetts has dropped substantially, including by more than 10% at Framingham State University and Mount Wachusett Community College, a trend echoed statewide as higher education has been upended by the coronavirus pandemic.

People are on the move at UMass Medical School, Bay State Savings Bank, Greater Worcester Community Foundation and more.

A Fitchburg retail plaza on Airport Road has sold for just over $1.2 million.

The unemployment rate in the Worcester area improved to 10.3% in August, down from 14.9% a month earlier, according to new data Wednesday from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Three small businesses in downtown Fitchburg received loans totaling $55,000 from the North Central Massachusetts Development Corp., the development arm of the North Central Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce, the organization announced on Friday. 

Girouard Tool Corp., a Leominster injection molding company, was approved Thursday by the state for tax breaks to help make possible a $2.8-million expansion, and a Fitchburg restaurant has received a tax credit to move downtown.

Atlantic Medicinal Partners opened its first recreational marijuana dispensary in Fitchburg on Friday. The dispensary is locally owned and vertically integrated.

Atlantic Medicinal Partners of Woburn officially opened its new Fitchburg marijuana dispensary at noon on Friday, the company announced, where it will serve both recreational and medicinal customers.

Unemployment rates in July improved in Greater Worcester and Northern Worcester County, but each remained among the nation's worst, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data released Wednesday.