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Old Navy, a retailer known for its wide variety of clothing items, is set to open its doors at The Center at Hobbs Brook retail plaza in Sturbridge Feb. 4. The new store will take over the retail space where an Old Navy store did business for many years. Since its closing, the space housed different stores, at one point Payless Shoes. The new Old Navy will share pavement with a Stop & Shop, a Michaels and Famous Footwear, while a Walmart spreads out to the left. The Center at Hobbs Brook comprises more than 15 shops.

791

Four proposed developments in the downtown and Canal District areas could bring a combined 791 new apartments to the city. The projects have pending site plan applications with the city Planning Board. The former Smokestack Urban Barbecue building on Green Street and a neighboring portion of the former Table Talk Pies property at Kelley Square are slated to be converted into an eight-story mixed-use apartment complex. Plans call for 375 units, retail space and a seven-story parking garage. The three other proposed projects will convert properties in the downtown area into multistory apartment complexes, totaling 416 units.

1072

Ziggy Bombs, a downtown Worcester sandwich shop known for its specialty steak and cheese subs, is set to open a second location this spring, at 1072 Main St. in Leicester. Owner Mike Devish, whose business has roots as a food truck, said the new location will carry the same menu and look as the Worcester location, where the walls are covered in prints of cooking flames and smoke. Devish said the new location will open sometime in the spring, once renovation wraps up. The building in Leicester was last used by a fast-food eatery called The Wing Company.

46%

Cable TV subscribers in the city don't like what they're seeing. Nearly eight in 10 subscribers said they will change their subscription with Charter-Spectrum Cable over the next two years, including 46% of subscribers who plan to cancel the service, according to a recent survey conducted in Worcester. The city’s contract with Charter-Spectrum, the sole cable provider in the city, expires Oct. 29. The survey was conducted in fall 2022 by ETC Institute of Kansas “to gauge public sentiment about Charter-Spectrum Cable Television services and to help guide the city’s priorities when renegotiating the contract with Charter-Spectrum Cable Television.”

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Joshua Marc Hebert says the key to a successful business lies in the relationships built with people. For him and his private jet industry partners Anthony Tivnan and Gregory Belezerian, those relationships started in Worcester. The trio are owners of Magellan Jets, a private jet travel company they founded in 2008, brokering private jet travel from and to Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York and other locations in the northeast. On Jan. 20, after reaching their 15th year of business, they opened a terminal at Laurence G. Hanscom Field in Bedford. Hebert, 48, and Tivnan, 42, are cousins who grew up at Tatnuck Square and College Hill respectively.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Business Matters: Central Mass. by the Numbers