ATHOL – Work has started on the transformation of the former Silver Lake School into a dozen apartments.

The project is being undertaken by developer Paul Goguen, who told the Athol Daily News he closed on the purchase of the former elementary school property less than a month ago and began work almost immediately. Goguen Enterprises is headquartered in Lunenburg.

“They will be market value units,” he said. “We didn’t make any deals with the town to make them affordable housing. Compared to what the Athol Housing Authority is offering, they’re pretty much the same. The rents are pretty good there and our apartments are going to be in that range.”

According to Goguen, the complex will consist of 10 two-bedroom apartments and two one-bedroom units, each one about 1,100 square feet. Much of the character of the former school will be maintained, he said. The building should be ready for occupancy in about six months.

“It depends on how fast we can get the water services completed,” he said. “We have to do a sprinkler system.”

Goguen added that he will wait until the project is completed before accepting applications for tenancy.

“What the architect came up with,” he said, “was a project where every classroom will be a unit. There’s almost no demo to be done, just some selective demo. There’s really not that much that needs to be changed in that building.”

Goguen said he is investing about $1.5 million into repurposing the school, which was built in 1920 and closed its doors in 2009.

“I used to do a lot of commercial projects,” he continued, “but we do a real mix of commercial and residential work. We used to build a lot of condos, projects a lot bigger than this one. This is kind of a small for us – medium, maybe.”

In addition to crews heading into and out of the former school, people driving by the site at 245 Silver Lake St. will also notice excavation taking place on an adjoining parcel. Goguen said he is building two single-family homes on that site.

Greg Vine can be reached at gvineadn@gmail.com.