Business View Civil and Municipal | March 2021

54 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL MARCH 2021 THE RIGHT WAY MEANS SERVING COMMUNITIES WE CALL HOME Waste Management values our partnership with the City of Gardner because we share the same ideals of service and stewardship. It is our honor to serve the residents of Gardner the right way, every day. For more information, visit wm.com or call (800) 972-4545. it or not, our numbers are growing substantially,” says Nicholson. “This is due to the cheaper cost of living here compared to the Greater Boston area. As more companies realized they were able to accommodate their employees remotely rather than in a traditional office, we started seeing a massive amount of people moving out of the Boston area to central Massachusetts.” Over the past year it was common for a 2,000-square-foot single-family home with 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms to be on the market for 36 hours and sell between $325,000 and $350,000. In the Greater Boston area, an identical home with less land would have sold between $500,000 and $600,000. In the downtown core, some of the distinctive heritage district buildings are being repurposed and revitalized in creative ways. According to Nicholson, “Gardner’s downtown was settled because it was the location between all of the chair factories. And we just signed with a developer to create a large-scale apartment