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Worcester City Council approves upgrades at Union Station to house CCC

WORCESTER, Mass. — The Cannabis Control Commission is one step closer to moving its headquarters to the city of Worcester.

The Worcester City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved a $2 million loan order to help make this happen. The money will be used to revamp Union Station.

The commission has already agreed to a 10-year lease at this location.

City manager Ed Augustus said those renovations would allow for the Cannabis Control Commission to move in here.

"Some improvements to the HVAC system, it had multiple users there before, now it would be all one user, so the reconfiguration of the walls to kind of be moved," Augustus said.

Augustus said the state would pay about $4.6 million over a 10-year lease to the city of Worcester, which would pay the city back for this loan and then some.

"The Commonwealth has a good record of paying their bills on time, so we like the idea of having a 10-year lease with the Commonwealth," he said.

This would be the first state agency to have its headquarters in the city of Worcester.

City leaders are hoping that'll bring a nice economic boost to the area.

"It’s somewhere (between) 50-70 employees that’ll be working here in Worcester, hopefully spending money at lunch time, people who come to Cannabis Control Commission who have business before it, bringing them to Worcester and hopefully there’s some spinoff from that," Augustus said.

The city will now bid out the work needed to complete the renovations.

It may not be until September before the Cannabis Control Commission moves in to the new location.