The town of Greenfield will soon be home to a new regional transit center. The Governor and lawmakers broke ground on the commonwealths first shovel ready stimulus project.

Governor Deval Patrick said, It's a great shot in the arm for downtown Greenfield and it's also a vote of confidence in downtown Greenfield."

On the corner of Bank Row and Olive street is where a used car dealership once sat. Now it's the future sight of a 12.8 Million Dollar Franklin Regional Transit Center.

Secretary of Transportation James Aloisi said, "We're flexing highway dollars out of the stimulus program to transit so that you all can have a state of the art, environmentally first grade transit center for this region and this community."

The state has been given the authority to spend nearly 438 million dollars on highway projects through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. At least 153 Million will be committed to shovel ready projects like this.

Governor Patrick said, "These targeted investments, these signature investments and the investment of time is meant to convey our confidence in the people of this region."

The Governor hopes the project will also encourage future passenger rail services along the Connecticut River Corridor.

Governor Patrick said, "We're very interested in trying to revive rail service right up to Vermont and we've been working with the Governor of Connecticut with bringing commuter rail up from New Haven into Springfield and I think you should see this as an extension of that."

Lawmakers say the transit center is an example on how the state intends to use stimulus funds.

Aloisi said, "This is a national model that I believe other will be looking toward as we try to find ways to make sure that our regional investments are both regionally equitable and trigger and spark economic growth and development."

The future transit center will also be environmentally friendly. The 24,000 square foot building is designed to drastically minimize energy use and will actually have the potential for on site renewable energy generation.