Governor Launches Business Builds Program

03:09PM / Sunday, December 21, 2025Print Story | Email Story

BOSTON — The Executive Office of Economic Development (EOED) announced the launch of Business Builds, a new competitive capital grant program designed to support business expansion, job creation, and climate-friendly investment across Massachusetts.

Created through the Mass Leads Act and administered by the Massachusetts Office of Business Development (MOBD), Business Builds provides strategic grants to businesses relocating to, expanding in, or creating new jobs in Massachusetts. The program is aimed at strengthening Massachusetts' competitiveness, accelerating private investment, and advancing projects that provide a clear public benefit, including job growth, revitalization of underutilized properties and economic growth in rural areas.

"Massachusetts succeeds when businesses can grow, innovate and create jobs in every region of our state," said Governor Maura Healey. "Business Builds gives employers the support they need to modernize facilities, expand operations and invest with confidence right here in Massachusetts."

Business Builds advances the Healey-Driscoll Administration's commitment to increasing Massachusetts' economic competitiveness while ensuring that public investments deliver meaningful public value. The program will complement existing tools such as the Economic Development Incentive Program to spur job creation, strengthen regional economies, and support capital investments in facilities and equipment. Through Business Builds, EOED aims to attract and retain businesses across Massachusetts, including in Gateway Cities, rural towns, and underutilized or redevelopment areas.

Business Builds is a rolling program, and the next deadline to apply is February 4, 2026. For more information, visit www.mass.gov/info-details/business-builds-capital-grant-program.

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Tina Packer, Founder of Shakespeare & Company, Dies at 87

Staff Reports 06:51PM / Saturday, January 10, 2026

LENOX, Mass. — The doyenne of Shakespeare's plays, Tina Packer, died Friday at the age of 87.

Shakespeare & Company, which Packer co-founded in 1978, made the announcement Saturday on its Facebook page.

"It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of Tina Packer, Shakespeare & Company's founding artistic director and acclaimed director, actor, writer, and teacher," the company said on its post and in a press release.

Packer, who retired a the theater company's artistic director in 2009, had directed all of Shakespeare's plays, some several times, acted in eight of them, and taught the whole canon at more than 30 colleges, including Harvard. She continued to direct, teach, and advocate for the company until her passing.

At Columbia University, she taught in the master of business administration program for four years, resulting in the publication of "Power Plays: Shakespeare's Lessons in Leadership and Management with Deming Professor John Whitney" for Simon and Schuster. For Scholastic, she wrote "Tales from Shakespeare," a children's book and recipient of the Parent's Gold Medal Award.

Most recently her book "Women of Will" was published by Knopf and she had been performing "Women of Will" with Nigel Gore, in New York, Mexico, England, The Hague, China, and across the United States. She's the recipient of numerous awards and honorary degrees, including the Commonwealth Award.

"Our hearts are heavy with the passing of Tina Packer, a fiery force of nature with an indomitable spirit," said Artistic Director Allyn Burrows. "Tina affected everyone she encountered with her warmth, generosity, wit, and insatiable curiosity. She delighted in people's stories, and reached into their hearts with tender humanity. The world was her stage, and she furthered the Berkshires as a destination for the imagination.

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