The sound of water rushing over the Blackstone River is part of the landscape of downtown Woonsocket. The falls, known as Thundermist, remain one of the city’s most distinctive landmarks and a reminder of the natural and industrial history that helped shape the city.
For Shawn Gerard Riendeau Jr., who grew up in Woonsocket and now teaches in Hong Kong, the river is also part of what could draw people back.
“I think we have a wonderful river. We have great culture here in the city,” Riendeau said during a recent visit home. “We have some arts, and I think the arts could be improved, and that would bring more people in.”
After two and a half years abroad, Riendeau said he did not return to a dramatically transformed downtown. But he did notice signs of change, including a series of free Friday concerts.
“I think that's a great thing for the city,” he said.
Building a new downtown
Those changes are part of a broader effort to rethink a downtown that was once at the center of Woonsocket’s thriving French-Canadian textile industry.
The Downtown Woonsocket Collaborative, a volunteer organization that has been working on downtown improvements for about a decade, has focused on enhancing public spaces and making the area more inviting.
“A lot of hard work's going into it,” said collaborative member Martin Crowley, pointing to improvements at River Island Art Park and elsewhere downtown. “We're really trying to revitalize downtown Woonsocket.”
The collaborative is partnering with Main Street Rhode Island, a program that provides training and support to local groups trying to breathe new life into traditional commercial districts.
The state awarded $125,000 to help launch the initiative, part of a larger national Main Street revitalization movement.
Jillian Finkle, deputy director of Grow Smart RI and lead of the Main Street Rhode Island initiative, describes the approach as “comprehensive, place-based, community-led economic development.”
“How do you take a place that is a commercial district and make it successful?” Finkle said. “Not just for the small businesses that are there ... but also for the community that is there.”
The goal, she said, is to create a “vibrant, walkable, healthy, happy place” where residents have a high quality of life, know their neighbors and support local businesses.
Rethinking what belongs on Main Street
Main Street Rhode Island focuses on four areas: developing small entrepreneurial ecosystems, improving the physical environment, strengthening communications and marketing and organizing volunteers.
In Woonsocket, real estate developer Garrett Mancieri has been deeply involved in the revitalization effort. Mancieri, chair of the Downtown Woonsocket Collaborative, has spent years working to reimagine the downtown of his grandparents’ generation.
Mancieri believes the appeal of downtown shopping districts is changing as consumers increasingly look for something they cannot get from a mall or a website.
“When I was growing up, when I wanted something, I would say, ‘Mom, let's go to the mall,’” Mancieri said. “Now, people want a walkable district. They want to go shopping and walk from this store to that store. They wanna be outside.”
Mancieri and other developers have been reimagining some of downtown Woonsocket’s historic buildings by combining ground-floor commercial space with housing above.
“The formula is to do commercial on the bottom floor and residential above,” he said. “That's what works.”
Not everyone believed it would.
“They said, ‘What are you doing? Like Main Street is dead,’” Mancieri recalled. “And I said, ‘Well, the businesses are gonna come back, but they're gonna come back in a different form.’”
Mancieri says downtown’s commercial vacancy rate has fallen from about 50% to about 18%.
The challenge is finding businesses that give people a reason to come downtown in an era when almost anything can be bought online.
“So what can't you do online?” Mancieri said. “You can't get your hair done, can't get your nails done. You can't go get a massage.”
Those kinds of businesses, he said, can help generate the foot traffic needed to support a modern Main Street.
Housing is another part of the equation.
“They're trying to revitalize through housing, and if you put people in housing, then they need to shop or a coffee shop or just places to eat,” Crowley said. “That's the goal, is to try to revitalize. Start from the inside out.”
Crowley believes getting more Rhode Islanders to visit Woonsocket could also help change perceptions of the city.
“I think once people get to visit the city, they see all the good that's going on,” he said. “Not only in the downtown area, but throughout the whole city. And Woonsocket does have a lot to offer.”
A model for other Rhode Island communities
The work underway in Woonsocket is also serving as a model for other communities looking to develop their own focused downtown revitalization plans.
Main Street Rhode Island is working with communities including Pawtucket, Cranston, Richmond, Hopkinton, Warwick and South Kingstown.
Mancieri said one of the biggest obstacles can be getting residents, businesses, government officials and other stakeholders to rally around the same vision.
“I think it's a struggle for many communities to get all those people in the room, get them all on the same page, have one single vision and mission and goal,” he said.
“It’s Rhode Island,” Mancieri added. “Everybody knows everybody, but not everybody works together.”
Main Street Rhode Island has received state funding for a second year of downtown workshops.
In October, Warren will host the second annual Rhode Island Main Street Conference Together, featuring day-long workshops, networking and a tour of efforts underway on Warren’s Main Street.
Back in Woonsocket, CNA student Joseph O’Keefe, who commutes to the city, offered a simpler assessment of the changing downtown.
“It's an overall nice city, honestly,” O’Keefe said. “Don't really come here much, but when I do come here, it's a good time.”
This story is part of Ocean State Media in Motion, reporting from cities and towns across Rhode Island. Ocean State Media intern Isabella Ba contributed to this story.
