FALL RIVER — The former Silvia School, largely destroyed by a fire in 2025, will undergo a full demolition in early March.
Melanie Cordeiro, vice president and chief marketing officer for The Cordeiro Group, which owns and is developing the property into market-rate housing, has a demo permit for what remains of the former school.
“We are not keeping any remaining part of the school,” Cordeiro said. “We are demolishing completely to ground level.”
The demolition is scheduled to occur within 10 days, she said.
The dilapidated former elementary school on Hartwell Street caught fire March 1, 2025, and was quickly considered a lost cause — it had long been condemned and was a nuisance property the city struggled to unload. Days after the fire, four juveniles were arrested and charged with arson; due to the defendants’ ages, their case status is unknown.
The main building, which was hit by the fire, was torn down in April 2025. The upcoming demolition will take down another building on the property that remained standing.
What will the new Silvia School property look like?
Developer Anthony Cordeiro acquired the Silvia School property in January 2026 for $205,000. His development company has considered the land part of its longterm strategy to create more market-rate housing around the city’s downtown area for young professionals and empty-nesters.
“We are doing a six-story building,” Melanie Cordeiro said.
The new building will contain 49 apartments, she said, including 29 one-bedroom apartments and 20 two-bedroom apartments.
Cordeiro said the company, which has developed other market-rate apartment properties in the area with one-bedroom and studio units, is refocusing its development strategy to build larger apartments.
The property can accommodate 98 parking spaces onsite. However, Cordeiro said, the company will seek a zoning variance in mid-March to allow one parking space per unit; the remainder will be used for residents at another Cordeiro apartment project to be built “somewhat simultaneously” down the block at 60 Hartwell St.
Once what’s left of the Silvia School is demolished, Cordeiro said, construction will begin “right away.”
“We’re hoping in the upcoming months, hopefully by summer, that there will be some action at the Silvia School,” she said.
What happened to the former Silvia School?
The former Frank M. Silvia School was built in 1902. It has been vacant since 2003, with a new Silvia School constructed on Meridian Street.
The building began to deteriorate with disuse. Around 2017, the City Council sold the building to real estate developer and businessman David Hebert, on the promise to redevelop the property into a boutique hotel and restaurant. After those plans did not materialize, a reverter clause allowed the city to retake the property in 2024.
The city attempted to resell the property for $20,000 shortly afterward, but a flaw in the bidding process canceled any progress. The fire destroyed the building while it was under city ownership.
