Developers broke ground this week on a long-awaited housing project at the site of Woonsocket’s former high school, turning a building that has sat empty since 2010 into the next chapter of the city’s rental market. The Residences at Park Place, as the project will be known, is being built by the Goldman Group on the site of the old school at 357 Park Place, with completion expected in 2029.
The groundbreaking, reported by WPRI.com, drew the public for a barbecue, music, family activities and renderings of the finished building. Developers said the event was meant to show former students what the building will become. The Goldman Group has said it wants to preserve the old high school’s architectural character as it reshapes the structure into housing.
Plans call for the project to contain around 150 market-rate apartments, according to WPRI.com, though a mayoral presentation reported by UpriseRI put the figure at 101 units — a discrepancy that has not been resolved publicly. Charles Goldman, managing partner of the Goldman Group, said the building is part of the community’s story, and that the company looks forward to working with the city to create a residential destination that draws people to Woonsocket and becomes a lasting source of local pride.
A School With a Long History
The building at the center of the project opened in 1914 as Woonsocket’s local high school before becoming a middle school in 1967, and it earned a spot on the National Register of Historic Places in 2017, according to Boston Real Estate Times. The property has stood empty since middle school students relocated to a new building on Florence Drive in 2010, per the Valley Breeze. The Goldman Group bought the school from the city for $1 million in 2022, the outlet reports.
Sources differ on the building’s overall size, with the Valley Breeze describing a 205,000-square-foot structure dating to 1914-1915, while Providence Business News has put the figure at 484,546 square feet. The design work is intended to preserve and restore the building’s Classical Revival architecture while adapting it for residential use, according to a report from multifamilybiz.com. The developer has also said it plans to preserve interior details including high ceilings, large windows, moldings, woodwork and stonework, per the Valley Breeze.
Timeline and Remaining Approvals
Mayor Christopher Beauchamp said the site holds a special place in the hearts of many Woonsocket residents, and that revitalizing it will strengthen housing options, preserve local history and reinforce confidence in the city’s growth. Pre-construction work is progressing on the property, with full apartment construction expected to start in 2027. The Valley Breeze reports that the first phase is expected to include asbestos removal and interior cleanup, which the mayor said would probably take four to six months.
Timelines for finishing the project also vary across accounts: the Valley Breeze reports construction beginning in 2027 with completion by the end of 2028, subject to local and state approvals, while WPRI.com reports the Residences at Park Place are expected to be completed in 2029. The project received an allocation through Rhode Island’s Historic Tax Credit program in late 2025, which allowed preconstruction work to resume, the Valley Breeze reports. A second historic tax credit application is currently under review by the Rhode Island Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission and the National Park Service, according to the same outlet, and the Goldman Group has said it also plans to apply for assistance through Rebuild Rhode Island, though that application had not yet been submitted.
A Tight Rental Market Statewide
The redevelopment arrives as Rhode Island grapples with a persistently tight rental market. The state’s rental vacancy rate stood at 2.6% in 2024, well below the 5% to 8% range considered healthy, according to Rhode Island Current. HousingWorks RI found that affording the state’s average two-bedroom rental required an income of $60,320, while the average renter earned just $48,434 in 2024, the outlet reported. Woonsocket was one of eight Rhode Island municipalities that met the state’s 10% affordable-housing target for 2025, per the same report.
The Goldman Group has other projects underway in the region, including apartments at mill buildings in Brockton, Taunton and Fall River, as well as another conversion at 292 East School Street in Woonsocket, according to Providence Business News. That outlet has also reported that the developer envisions the former school redevelopment as a luxury mixed-use complex featuring a recreation center, gaming courts, a gym, an indoor pool, saunas, locker rooms and showers. Plans call for market-rate rental apartments alongside roughly 30,000 square feet of amenities, the Valley Breeze reports.
