Image courtesy of Google Maps.

Gov. Charlie Baker joined Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno and other local dignitaries to celebrate the start of work on a project to rehab downtown Springfield’s historic Paramount Theater and the creation of a hotel in the adjoining Massasoit Building – a hotel which will be run by the owners of Stockbridge’s famed Red Lion Inn.

Main Street Hospitality will manage the new hotel, according to MassLive.com. The New England Farm Workers Council bought the building in 2011.

The $41 million project, funded in part by a $2.5 million grant from the state and a $3.68 million Department of Housing and Urban Development Section 108 loan, plus tax credits, will see the 1857-era building rehabbed into an 85-room boutique hotel and the 1926 theater turned into a 1,750-seat performing arts venue.

The complex is across the street from the city’s recently-rehabbed Union Station and five blocks away from the MGM Springfield casino.