Framingham State Awarded $75K For ADA Accessibility Improvements

This story was updated at 3:02 p.m.

FRAMINGHAM, MA — Framingham State University was awarded $75,000 through the Community One Stop for Growth Awards in the Fiscal Year 2023 cycle, the Commonwealth announced recently.

In total, 337 local economic development projects received funding in 169 communities, according to state records. Gov. Charlie Baker said $143 million in grants were doled out to those communities in this year's funding round.

"We are proud of our collaborative work to ensure that all 351 of MA's cities and towns have the resources, tools and support they need to drive critically important projects that provide a better quality of life for residents, and help communities plan for the future," said Baker.

Framingham State was awarded their share through the underutilized properties program, which is administered by MassDevelopment and funds "projects that will improve, rehabilitate or redevelop blighted, abandoned, vacant or underutilized properties to achieve the public purposes of eliminating blight, increasing housing production, supporting economic development projects, increasing the number of commercial buildings accessible to persons with disabilities."

The university will use the money to improve ADA accessibility to the Entrepreneur Innovation Center on campus.

Improvements will be made to the front entrance to make it fully accessible, and the university will also see an upgrade to one facility restroom for improved accessibility.

According to a spokesperson for the university, the grant money will match what Framingham State is spending on the project. FSU's portion of the money is coming from surplus funds received from the American Rescue Plan Act.

No exact timeline for the project is established, but the university hopes to have it completed within one year. Once designs are completed, and dependent on vendor schedules, the construction is expected to take roughly six to eight weeks.