State-owned building in Woonsocket goes up for auction

WOONSOCKET – A state-owned downtown office building is being auctioned next month.

The three-story building at 181 Cumberland St. is the current location of the nonprofit Community Care Alliance. The state will auction the building online between March 14 and March 15, with a starting bid of $425,000.

“Community Care Alliance, the tenant for 181 Cumberland Street in Woonsocket, originally had a lease agreement of $0.10 per year. That lease has since expired,” said Randal Edgar spokesman the R.I. Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals and Derek Gomes, spokesman for the R.I. Department of Administration, in a joint statement. “Following state purchasing laws, the Cumberland Street property has been put out to public auction, giving CCA the opportunity to purchase the building.”

Built more than 40 years ago, 181 Cumberland St. has been home to Community Care Alliance, which used it to provide behavioral health services and a commercial kitchen to the community. But over the past few years, the building made headlines due to its state of poor maintenance, that eventually forced most of the Community Care Alliance staff to abandon part of the property.

- Advertisement -

“The building was not maintained,” said Benedict Lessing Jr., CEO and president of CCA. “The reality is that they just allowed the building to fall into disrepair.”

Lessing said he advocated with the state for years for better maintenance, but with little to no results. The state took years to replace a leaking roof, leading to water damage that made several floors inhabitable, he said.

The nonprofit eventually relocated most of its staff, continuing to operate only the kitchen on the lower level. Until recently, when the state decided to sell the property. Since getting notified of the eviction, Lessing said the company has been transitioning the kitchen out of the building and will officially be out by March 17.

The Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals has been working with Lessing and CCA to help them find a location that will “position the agency to continue to provide its critical services,” according to BHDDH and the Department of Administration.

“BHDDH recognizes the work by Mr. Lessing and CCA to provide services to individuals in northern Rhode Island who have persistent mental illness and who may be homeless, and BHDDH has and will continue to work closely with CCA to meet the needs of those individuals,” said the state agencies in the joint statement.

Lessing still holds out some hope for the property. He said CCA is planning to bid on the building, hoping to go ahead with plans to repurpose it to assist the area’s homeless population.

“The building was built specifically for our organization,” said Lessing. “It was designed to address the need of people in Woonsocket and Rhode Island in terms of behavioral health services.”

Claudia Chiappa is a PBN staff writer. You may contact her at Chiappa@PBN.com.