Central Falls Mayor Maria Rivera has set a ribbon-cutting date of December 7 for El Centro, a community resource center with three above-ground stories and a basement that will finally replace the municipal gathering space the cash-strapped city lost roughly 15 years ago. The $13 million project, housed in the historic DeNevers Building at 702 Broad Street, has been six years in the making, according to Rivera.
The announcement, first reported by The Valley Breeze, comes as crews wrap up the final stretch of work on the building, which previously operated as the Ministerio Guerreros De Cristo church. Rivera said the project took years to move from concept to construction because the city needed time to secure funding and figure out exactly what services the space should provide. El Centro is expected to receive its certificate of occupancy in November, with the remaining work focused on furnishing the facility and final cleaning after construction wraps.
A Long Gap Since the City's Last Community Center
Central Falls has gone without a community center of this caliber for about 15 years, per Rivera's account. The city's previous facility, the Ralph J. Holden Community Center, was permanently closed in June 2011 when state-appointed receiver Robert Flanders ordered the shutdown amid emergency spending cuts, according to GoLocalProv. Rivera has said the prior center closed simply because the city could not afford to keep it running. That fiscal collapse culminated in Central Falls filing for Chapter 9 municipal bankruptcy in August 2011, facing $80 million in unfunded pension obligations, before emerging from bankruptcy in September 2012, as detailed by the Los Angeles Times at the time.
Rivera made history in January 2021 when she took office as Rhode Island's first Latina mayor, after winning the November 2020 election. Replacing the lost community center became a top priority for her once she took office. El Centro is intended, in her words, to provide a long-term community resource space for the city.
Four Floors, Dozens of Services Under One Roof
The renovated 19,500-square-foot building will stretch across a basement and three above-ground floors, plus a new addition with an elevator, per the Valley Breeze report. The basement will house constituent services and the city's health department, including a dedicated health partner room where residents can meet one-on-one with resource partners and access city services.
The first floor includes a share market, a conference room, space for Tides Family Services, and the director's office. The second floor is geared toward programming, particularly for youth, with a program room, computer lab, a Parks and Recreation staff office, and a tutoring room with a small library area. The third floor focuses on seniors and community programming, featuring a meeting and program room along with the fitness room the city has been outfitting with commercial-grade treadmills, strength machines, and free weights under a request for proposals published in September.
Services Range From Mental Health to Food Assistance
El Centro is designed to serve the entire Central Falls community regardless of age or background, offering youth and outpatient mental health services, health and wellness support, senior programming, domestic violence advocacy, employment services, early intervention, and housing and rental assistance. After-school youth programming and a shared marketplace for food and toiletry assistance round out the offerings.
Mavy Pineda, the city's Parks and Recreation director, is coordinating the organizations that will provide services inside the building. Pineda said she was grateful that the mayor trusted her to lead the project and serve the community. Partner organizations will use the space during rotating time frames rather than holding 24/7 office ownership, with the Northern Rhode Island Boys and Girls Club, Tides Family Services, Blackstone Valley Health Center, and Jenks Pediatrics among the groups involved. City Director of Development and Strategic Partnerships Derek Collamati is credited with acquiring the funding behind the project.
Among the planned offerings is a food share market run in partnership with the Elisha Project, a Pawtucket-based organization, which will mainly operate when other local food pantries are closed. City officials say they plan to expand partnerships and services over time as El Centro settles into operation.
Nearly $13 Million, Mostly From State and Federal Grants
The total project cost comes to $13,064,698, with $8,985,198 — about 69 percent — funded through Rhode Island's Capital Projects Fund, according to the Rhode Island Pandemic Recovery Office. The heavy reliance on state and federal pandemic recovery dollars was designed to minimize the burden on local taxpayers in a city that is still recovering financially from its bankruptcy years.
Federal lawmakers helped jump-start the project in November 2022, when Rhode Island's congressional delegation announced $3.7 million in combined federal funding, including a $2 million earmark in the fiscal year 2022 federal budget, $705,000 from the American Rescue Plan Act, and $1 million in Community Development Block Grants, according to a release from U.S. Senator Jack Reed's office. Private philanthropy has also contributed; the Centreville Bank Charitable Foundation awarded a $100,000 grant to the Central Falls Foundation in March 2025 to support youth workforce development and career readiness programming based at El Centro, as reported by Providence Business News.
City leaders marked the formal start of construction on May 9, 2025, with a ceremonial sledgehammer event led by Rivera and community partners, according to the City of Central Falls. The project had a fall 2026 opening target.
Serving the State's Most Densely Populated City
The investment lands in a city built for exactly this kind of dense, shared service hub. Central Falls is Rhode Island's most densely populated municipality, spanning just 1.2 square miles, with Hispanics or Latinos making up 69.1 percent of its estimated 22,701 residents, according to 2024 U.S. Census Bureau data. City officials have described El Centro not as a traditional recreation center but as a multi-partner hub combining clinical health care, senior programs, youth mentoring, food support, and constituent services under one roof.
With the certificate of occupancy expected in November and furnishing underway, the city is aiming to have El Centro fully ready for its December 7 ribbon cutting, giving Central Falls residents their first municipal community center in roughly a decade and a half.
