WOONSOCKET, R.I. — A lone customer walked into Timeless Antiques & Collectibles on a weekday afternoon. He wove between rows of glass cases stocked with antiques and illuminated by the glow of neon signs. He was one of two people to enter the store in a half hour’s time.
Ever since Frank Irwin opened his business here 12 years ago, he’s questioned how long he can keep up shop with few patrons walking around downtown Woonsocket. Antiquing is his passion, and he doesn’t need much financially to sustain himself and his wife. But he said he’s frustrated with the lack of effort he sees local leaders taking to change the image of the city that’s become his home.
Now, city officials hope they have the answer to Woonsocket’s growing economic woes. They are going all in on a plan to revitalize Main Street and lure tourists by bringing in upscale vendors and restaurants. Their hope is to build a larger tourism base and lift morale in the city. But business owners and many locals said they are dubious about the effort, saying the city must first invest in helping support residents struggling to make ends meet.
City Council President John Ward said the city is an economic desert. Major highways — Interstate 95, Interstate 295, and Route 146 — don’t lead into Woonsocket, and there are no substantial businesses drawing people in, he said. That’s why the city must adopt a “if you build it, they will come,” plan, he said.
“People who are coming to Woonsocket have to be intentionally coming to Woonsocket,” Ward said. “And that’s why it becomes a challenge for Main Street.”
Last year, the city funded a two-person economic development department to help combat vacancy rates among businesses and bolster foot traffic. The department is headed by John Ahumada, who declined multiple interview requests from the Globe.
The city was recently awarded a $150,000 grant from the Rhode Island Commerce Main Street RI Streetscape Improvement Fund that will assist in economic development and tourism efforts, said Emily Haining-Sheehan, the city’s small business outreach coordinator. The city plans to transform the Main Street area into a tourism district called the “Theatre District,” she said.
“We’re basically going for, like, a little Paris,” Ahumada told city councilors at a February meeting reported by The Valley Breeze. He spoke of plans to create a “Visit Woonsocket” website, highlighting the development outline to draw outsiders in.
Some, however, remain unconvinced that the city is making the right play.
Edinaldo Tebaldi, a Bryant University professor focused on economic development and poverty studies, said Woonsocket’s past economic successes came from its workforce. Woonsocket was once one of the largest textile manufacturing centers in the United States. But the mills eventually moved to where cotton was cheaper, and a banking crisis in the 1990s put an end to the local financial industry. Now the city, home to CVS, the health care giant, is one of the poorest in Rhode Island.
Tebaldi said the city has to decide what it wants to put money toward: tackling existing social issues such as food insecurity and unemployment rates, or promoting a tourism base.
“I don’t know if Woonsocket has come to a place where they know, in fact, what they want to do,” he said.
Bonnie Piekarski, who holds leadership roles in several Woonsocket-based social service organizations, said she has seen local leaders fall short in providing resources for years. The plan to build a Theatre District after City Hall recently voted against building a federally funded food hub to address hunger in the city comes as no surprise, she said.
“I understand pushing the economy toward tourism, but there’s major problems in the city that aren’t being addressed,” she said. “While it’s nice to have the Theatre District, who are those things geared toward?”
She said she is worried tourism efforts will target an outside population “with money to spend” instead of catering to those in the city who struggle to find food to eat: “I don’t think the efforts are completely where they need to be.”
Others, however, insist that tourism is the future for this 8-square-mile city of 43,000 people.
“We need to find a way to pitch our own city,” said Garrett Mancieri, a city councilor who has served on and off since 2013 and is part of the group of city leaders promoting the Downtown Woonsocket Collaborative.
Mancieri, 39, is one of the younger members of the City Council, and said bringing in new attractions will give the city a fresh appeal.
The city already has two main attractions that draw tourists to the area.
The Stadium Theatre, which will celebrate its 100th year in 2026, has hosted performances by big-name celebrities, including Liza Minelli and Bob Marley over the years. Its deep red awning opens into a historic space, with murals covering the walls and a stage that invites a crowd of 1,000. These days, the event calendar is filled with tribute bands.
On a recent spring afternoon, facilities director Dennis Tancrell stood outside the theater looking out at an empty Main Street. There are 150 shows a year, though only about 3 percent of ticket sales come from the Woonsocket ZIP code, he said.
“It’s not a great time for the city, but we’ve had worse times,” he said.
Tancrell grew up in Woonsocket, and is often reminded by other longtime residents, or “Woonsocket Rockets,” how special the theater was in their youth, when for $2.25 they could see two movies and eat popcorn and ice cream. He hopes to see Woonsocket grow back into the heartbeat of the state he felt it was as a kid. And he said he believes the arts can play a role in revitalizing the city’s image.
The Museum of Work & Culture, the other main tourist driver, was established in one of the former mills along the Blackstone River in 1997. The museum tells the French-Canadian history of Woonsocket, with interactive exhibits filling two floors.
Director Anne Conway has seen Woonsocket change in her 27 years working there. Going to church and speaking French at home is no longer commonplace, she said.
“We want to preserve that history and we want people to come here and reconnect with that heritage of theirs,” she said.
Meanwhile, the few storefronts that remain open along Main Street are grappling with the lack of customers coming in.
“Some of the elected officials and political folks don’t come out, and they don’t know what’s really happening,” said Geri Barclay-King, owner of Geri’s Bluffing Boutique, a West African apparel and jewelry store. She’s lived in Woonsocket for 25 years, and opened her store in 2020.
Barclay-King partners with Social Enterprise Greenhouse, a Providence-based network that supports small businesses. A representative drives to Woonsocket once a week to host workshops for small business owners as part of an initiative called Grow Woonsocket. Barclay-King said the support she receives from them is more than she feels from her own city.
“There are some days I’m so mad at this city I don’t even want to be here,” she said, “but a little bird will say, ‘Nope, don’t give up.’”
Alexa Coultoff can be reached at alexa.coultoff@globe.com. Follow her @alexacoultoff.