Malden to receive funding through ‘Community One Stop for Growth’

Special to The Advocate

Mayor Gary Christenson announced that Malden received grant awards through two programs under the Commonwealth’s Community One Stop for Growth application/review process. The first is a MassWorks Infrastructure Program grant for $460,000 to redesign Commercial Street. This will allow the City to comprehensively study an array of streetscape improvements that could be made to Commercial Street to improve traffic circulation and the corridor’s prospects for new growth and economic development opportunities. Improvements to sidewalks, intersections, traffic signals and lighting and new and improved tree plantings will all be studied as part of the Commercial Street redesign concept.

The second is an award through the Massachusetts Vacant Storefront Program. The award grants the City of Malden access to $50,000 worth of 2026 refundable tax credits to be assigned to one or more small businesses that move into vacant storefronts in Malden.

The MassWorks Infrastructure Program and the Vacant Storefront Program are administered by the Commonwealth’s Executive Office for Economic Development, which announced these awards in Monson on Thursday, November 6.

“We want to thank the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for making serious investments in the City of Malden at a critical turning point for our City,” said Mayor Christenson. “Our surest way out of our tight fiscal environment is through a focus on new growth, investment, and economic development – and these two grants do exactly that.”

He further stated, “We are eager to begin using these grants to support small businesses in Malden generally and to make Commercial Street a more attractive corridor. These kinds of state investments will go a long way in driving new growth and economic development in our City.”

For more information, please reach out to Rebekah McPheters at rm*********@**********en.org.