Downtown Pittsfield Inc. receives state funding for tech lab

August 1, 2023 : The Berkshire Eagle

PITTSFIELD — Downtown Pittsfield Inc. has received a $65,000 Transformative Development Initiative Creative Catalyst Grant from MassDevelopment to create a technology lab at the Boys and Girls Club of the Berkshires.

The tech lab is designed to be an entrepreneurial hub for teenagers and serve as a new pipeline between the Berkshire Innovation Center and downtown North Street in Pittsfield.

DPI and its partners will also use the funding to finance the build-out of a brick-and-mortar space for the Pittsfield Community Design Center, an "urban room" that will serve as a space for planning and executing strategy and community-focused planning, and implementing the "Let it Shine" mural installation and celebratory festival that will put two building scale mural in the city's pedestrian core.

DPI is one of nine state organizations that  received a combined $500,000 in TDI grants for public-facing projects in the state's Gateway Cities. The other projects are located in Barnstable, Brockton, Chelsea, Chicopee, Fall River, Lowell and Worcester.