LEOMINSTER  — The Orchard Hill Park shopping plaza is expanding. 

On Oct. 13, the city of Leominster received a MassWorks grant totaling $2,090,000 to expand Orchard Hill Park Drive – the road where the plaza is located – in order to open up more land for further development.

Orchard Hill Park is a 15-store shopping plaza, which abuts Lancaster. It houses a Target, Best Buy, Kohl’s and Olive Garden, among other popular retail outlets and restaurants. Leominster’s Mayor Dean Mazzarella said the city plans on adding 234,000 square feet of new building space behind the Target. 

“We’re really excited about the grant. It doesn’t have a match to it so it’s fully state funded,” said Mazarella. “We have a lot of calls for more space so this is going to help new businesses that are trying to move into town.”

The grants are offered by the state’s MassWorks Infrastructure Program, which in turn is administered by the Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development.

According to mass.gov, the purpose of the MassWorks grants is to provide a flexible source of capital funds to municipalities for public infrastructure projects that support and accelerate housing production, increase private development and create more jobs throughout the Commonwealth. 

The latest MassWorks grant is expected to leverage $19,000,000 in private investment and create 300 full and part time jobs along Orchard Hill Park Drive. In the last 10 years, the city of Leominster has received over $8,000,000 in grant money from the MassWorks Infrastructure Program. 

“We have been investing in this area for years,” said Mazarella. “In the 2000s, we partnered with the state to invest over $3,000,000 to bring the sewer/water lines from the Mall at Whitney Field all the way to Orchard Hill Park Drive which expanded local jobs and our tax base.  This project will continue that trend with 300 more jobs and additional tax revenue.”