The train platform at the Pawtucket-Central Falls Transit Center is bustling, and longtime Pawtucket resident Charlie Zechel is among the dozens of people waiting on a recent weekday morning for the next train to arrive from Providence and whisk them into Massachusetts.
For more than two decades, Zechel has been commuting to his job as executive director for the nonprofit Community Boating Inc. in Boston, and he’s noticed a change over the years: more cars and more congestion on the highway.
“I would wait in traffic jams for hours out of the week,” he said.
That’s not his problem anymore. Two years ago, the sleek $63 million train station opened amid the clusters of old brick mills just outside downtown Pawtucket, with the commuter rail service provided by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority.
Zechel had sometimes used the MBTA stop in nearby South Attleboro, but it was closed for several years because of a crumbling pedestrian overpass.
“Now with the station here, the Pawtucket train is always my first choice to commute,” Zechel said. “It’s always on time. Commuters here needed a break, and now we’ve got one.”
Local and state leaders would argue that Pawtucket itself caught a break, too.
The city, reeling in 2021 from the loss of the Pawtucket Red Sox and more recently dealing with the prospect of toymaking giant Hasbro Inc. moving out, has at least some of its hopes for an economic revival riding on the MBTA trains.
By some measures, the transit center has been a success so far.
The 40 MBTA trains that stop there each weekday picked up and dropped off an average of 1,800 passengers daily in 2024, an amount that’s about 50% above projections before the station opened in January 2023, according to the R.I. Department of Transportation.
More recent data wasn’t immediately available, but there are indications the usage hasn’t dissipated. The 475-space parking lot at the transit hub – there is no charge for parking – is often filled to capacity on weekdays. There is extensive R.I. Public Transit Authority bus service, too.
But just how much of an economic boost the intermodal connections will be for Pawtucket remains to be seen.
City officials tout that more than 1,000 units of new housing have been created or are in the pipeline in the area around the train stop, many of those units were spurred by the existence of easy transit access to Boston – and Providence, for that matter.
The future of commercial development is less clear.
Downtown Pawtucket, just a few minutes walk from the Pawtucket-Central Falls Transit Center, looks much as it has for decades – a gritty mix of small businesses and empty storefronts in what a century ago was a busy center of commerce.
At least one major property owner is lamenting the lack of a revitalization plan for downtown Main Street that capitalizes on the train station.
Meanwhile, the city has been searching for months for private partners to help redevelop the “Downtown Gateway Project,” about 20 acres of the commercial district on the east side of the Blackstone River that includes the old Apex department store. Buildings have been demolished to offer developers a clean slate to work with and the Apex store has been partially dismantled. But so far, no partners have stepped up.
Still, Pawtucket Mayor Donald R. Grebien sees plenty to be excited about.
He’s seen his share of dark days since he first took office in 2011, most notably the PawSox departure from McCoy Stadium for Worcester, Mass., and his desperate scramble to dissuade Hasbro from moving out of its longtime headquarters on Newport Avenue, or at least from moving out of the city.
But now Grebien has a combination of amenities that few cities of Pawtucket’s size have: a transit center that provides a commuter rail connection to Boston’s massive metro area and a brand-new 10,500-seat Centreville Bank Stadium and a pro soccer team to go with it less than a mile away.
“We have some of the tools … now we have the attractions, the anchors,” Grebien said. “Now we start having the traffic to support the businesses, and it’s growing.”
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HAPPY TO BE HERE: Jeremy Duffy, co-founder of Isle Brewers Guild LLC, says the Pawtucket-Central Falls Transit Center has added life to the industrial neighborhood in Pawtucket where his beer hall, The Guild, is located.
PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO[/caption]
HIGHER ENERGY
When it comes to the Pawtucket train station, Jeremy Duffy has seen the before and after.
Duffy, co-founder of Isle Brewers Guild LLC, bought an industrial building along a ramshackle section of Main Street in 2015 and, two years later, opened The Guild, a brewery, beer hall and event space.
The Guild first benefited from the completion of several loft apartment projects around the property, providing an influx of customers. Then, when the transit hub opened less than 1,000 feet to the north of The Guild, the arriving trains started carrying commuters and travelers into the neighborhood.
In the first year since the station opened, Duffy says, The Guild saw upward of 100,000 visitors, many of whom traveled across state lines for events. They continue to come.
He acknowledges that it’s difficult to know which patrons are coming off the trains, but he has noticed the area is being transformed from the bleak landscape of aging, underused mill buildings around the transit center.
“The energy level and overall bustling of the city is amazing now compared to what it was,” he said. “It’s extraordinary.”
The Guild property is part of a special development zone dubbed the Conant Thread District – named after a sprawling textile company that once occupied the area – a 150-acre patchwork of massive industrial properties bisected by the railway and train stop.
In recent years, the cities of Pawtucket and Central Falls ramped up efforts to reinvent the area through zoning changes, financial incentives and marketing to entice developers. The idea is to reshape the 4 million square feet of space into a mixed-use “transit-oriented development” that is high density and more walkable, so there’s a lower reliance on cars for residents.
There has been some progress, including the development of loft-style apartments and the opening of fitness and yoga studios, and even distilleries with a tasting room. And Grebien says the city recently began talks with a property owner that controls about 20 acres of the district, some of which is in Central Falls.
“There’s prime real estate to be developed,” the mayor said.
Gaetan Kashala, Pawtucket Foundation executive director, says the train station has been the linchpin in attracting private-sector investors.
“In terms of economic and housing development, it’s really the catalyst for growth in the city,” Kashala said.
Case in point: Directly next to the transit center, plans are underway for a new 180-unit, six-story apartment building with ground-floor commercial space. Groundbreaking for the $57 million project is expected this year.
In addition, an abutting two-story factory has been put on the market for $1.2 million. The 125-year-old building has been owned by a metal finishing company since 2008, with an assessed value by the city of $462,400.
“The new train station has made the sale of [this] building very desirable,” said Michael Russo, the listing agent and broker at RI Real Estate Services LLC. “The new owners will have to clean up some chemicals and industrial materials, but it’s all well worth it now due to the train.”
Then there’s the Dexter Street Commons, a $55 million, 150-unit apartment complex that’s already under construction a block away from both the transit center and downtown Pawtucket.
Leland Peyser, the New Jersey developer leading the project, says he was motivated to proceed with the sitework once the station was opened. The financing, including a $30 million loan from the Rockland Trust Co., was sewn up late last year.
“I’m one of the first developers to break ground here since [the train station] opened, so I am taking more risks than whoever comes after me in terms of improving the area’s infrastructure and attracting tenants,” Peyser said. “The reason there were no major developments here was [that] there wasn’t a way to finance it. The appeal for investors really wasn’t there … that is, until the city and state made this train station happen.”
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NEW GROUND: Developer Leland Peyser at the site of Dexter Street Commons, a $55 million, 150-unit apartment complex under construction near the train stop.
PBN PHOTO/ARTISTIC IMAGES[/caption]
GREEN LIGHT FOR STOP
Making it happen wasn’t exactly easy.
The push to build a train station in Pawtucket came on the heels of the opening of two other rail stops in Rhode Island – one at Rhode Island T.F. Green International Airport in Warwick in 2010 and another at Wickford Junction in North Kingstown in 2012.
From the start, the ridership at both stops was disappointing. It was particularly poor at Wickford, where thousands of daily boardings were expected but only a few hundred regularly turned out.
The complicating factor: the severely underutilized Wickford station and parking garage cost $44 million to build and relied mostly on federal funding. State and local leaders worked hard to persuade federal officials to sink more money – about $43 million of the entire $63 million price tag – into another Rhode Island train stop on the Pawtucket-Central Falls border, Grebien said.
“We went through excruciating pain to justify how this was different,” he said. “We understood the value.”
Now complete, the station in Pawtucket stands out against the brick industrial cityscape, a glass and steel structure with an enclosed pedestrian bridge and public artwork. A sign announcing the Pawtucket-Central Falls stop is reminiscent of the sign on the old train station that closed in 1959 but still sits abandoned less than a half mile up the track.
By the numbers, the new stop has performed well. RIDOT originally projected it would see 520 daily boardings when it opened in early 2023, but a little more than a year later, it was recording more than 700 daily boardings, about half the amount of the Providence station’s boardings.
In response to the demand, RIDOT more than doubled the size of the station’s initial 200-space parking lot. And work is underway to add a building at the station that will contain amenities such as an interior waiting area, police substation and restrooms.
Rhode Island FC – the pro soccer team that calls the new Centreville Bank Stadium home – is attempting to capitalize on the MBTA stop, too.
Team President David Peart says a study commissioned by Rhode Island FC estimated that at least 45,000 to 50,000 out-of-state residents will be attending events at the stadium this year, many of whom will come from Massachusetts communities along the commuter rail route.
“These people wouldn’t be coming to Rhode Island and Pawtucket for any other reason than attending an RIFC game,” he said. “Train accessibility and the busing that takes them from the station right to the stadium are literally bringing these fans right to us.”
Indeed, RIPTA is offering buses that loop continuously between the station and the stadium every eight to 10 minutes on game days. Data on how many passengers used the commuter rail to get to the games or used the bus service before and after recent Rhode Island FC games was not immediately available.
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PASSING THROUGH: Amtrak’s high-speed Acela zooms past the train station in Pawtucket. Only the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority trains stop at the station.
PBN PHOTO/WILLIAM HAMILTON[/caption]
‘STILL WAITING’
Developer Leslie Moore was hopeful that when the train stop opened in Pawtucket, it might provide a boost to downtown Pawtucket. So far, she’s been disappointed.
Moore has purchased eight downtown properties since 2017, transforming them into spaces such as Still on Main, a mini-mall and business hub, apartments, cafes, a performance venue and the African American Innovation Center.
It’s all just a 10-minute walk from the Pawtucket-Central Falls Transit Center.
But without any noticeable increase in foot traffic along the commercial corridor along Main Street, Moore’s optimism has waned.
“There really needs to be a coordinated effort to make sure that people who are using that train actually go downtown,” Moore said. “There was a sense when the station first opened up that the city was on this. But it’s been more than a year, and I have not seen an idea or a picture or anything to show that the city has a plan to get people from the train to downtown. The retailers and I are still waiting.”
She did notice that officials put effort into promoting the recent soccer games and getting people from the station to the stadium at the riverfront Tidewater Landing development across the city. “If they apply that same effort to downtown, the whole city can prosper,” Moore said.
For his part, Grebien acknowledges that the city needs to do some planning, assembling a complete marketing campaign and branding to attract businesses and visitors, but he says the city also needs to find the funding to do it.
In the meantime, his focus has been divided. He’s devoting attention to the next phases of the Tidewater Landing project, which includes 600 units of housing and commercial space on both sides of the Seekonk River and a pedestrian bridge.
There’s also the Downtown Gateway Project, in which city officials are intent on getting the right density of retail and housing developments. In fact, at one point, big-box warehouse club Costco Wholesale Corp. showed interest in purchasing the Apex property, according to Grebien.
The city countered with a proposal that was a mix of retail and residential. No deal.
“The challenge was we wanted to make sure we’re creating density in the downtown,” Grebien said. “But that wasn’t in their model.”
Then there’s the Conant Thread District, where the Pawtucket-Central Falls Transit Center is located.
Grebien points to the triangle of the city between the train stop, the Downtown Gateway Project and the Tidewater Landing development.
“That’s our active zone,” he said. “We have a lot of people who are kicking the tires around the different projects. You’re starting to feel that people want to develop in the city.”
