What Happens To Sharon's Old Carnegie Library On North Main Street?

The library moved out of the 1914 Carnegie building at 11 North Main Street in May 2025. Since then Sharon has offered the building to the market four times. One developer has been through a due diligence period with the town, and there is still no agreed price. The developer has proposed $460,000 for the building, paid in installments as each finished condominium sells. What happens next depends on a town appraisal based on the developer's own drawings. That appraisal becomes public the day the town receives it.

The Library Left, And The Statue Went With It

The new Sharon Public Library opened at 1 School Street with a ribbon-cutting on May 19, 2025. The move doubled the library's size and added onsite parking, which the old location lacked. According to the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners, a $7.5 million state construction grant paid for part of it. The town's groundbreaking notice put the total project at $24.3 million.

The Deborah Sampson statue that stood outside the Carnegie building moved on May 5, 2025, two weeks before the grand opening. The Sharon Historical Society recorded the transfer. The old building stayed with the town, which still carries it on its books.

Four Rounds Of Proposals, Two Real Options

The Library Reuse Committee started with seven members in the summer of 2024 and wrote the first request for proposals. That RFP drew one response, and it did not meet the requirements. The town reissued the RFP three more times. The fourth round went out January 28, 2026, through COMMBUYS, the town website and Patriot Ledger classified ads, with responses due March 31. It drew two proposals: a 15-year lease for a daycare, and a sale of the building for condominiums.

The bids were few because of the building's limits, and those limits have shaped every round. In July, Library Reuse Committee Vice Chair Judy Crosby described the main constraint to the Select Board, according to the July 22 minutes. The rear addition, built in the early 1980s, carries a restriction limiting it to library use. If the Zoning Board of Appeals declined to lift that restriction, a developer would need Historical Commission approval to demolish the addition. If the Commission denied that approval, the lot would become unbuildable. She said she raised the point to explain the building's current low value.

At the June 9 meeting, Town Administrator Fred Turkington said due diligence would give time to work through milestones and the ways the building's age reduces its value. At the same meeting, Crosby said a report from as far back as 2020 had found housing to be the best use of the building. She also said Paramount was the first proposal from a developer with adaptive reuse experience.

What Paramount Put On Paper

Paramount Development Group LLC, led by president Richard J. Derosas, submitted its proposal on March 29, 2026. It would turn the former library into 12 condominiums, keep the exterior, and rebuild the interior. The proposal on the town's website lays out the units floor by floor:

The price structure is the part that matters most for the town's finances. Paramount proposed a base price of $460,000, paid through what it calls a lot release structure:

• $40,000 to the town for each two-bedroom unit sold, totaling $320,000 for eight units
• $35,000 to the town for each one-bedroom unit sold, totaling $140,000 for four units
• Payments arrive as units sell, so the full $460,000 depends on all 12 selling

Under this structure the town is paid as the project succeeds, not when it hands over the building. That spreads the market risk between the town and the developer. Paramount's proposal presents it as an advantage: the town gets sale proceeds over time plus future property tax revenue.

What The July Agreement Commits The Town To

On June 9 the Select Board voted 5-0 to begin a non-exclusive due diligence period with Paramount. On July 22 it voted 5-0 to approve the agreement for that period. The agreement went through three drafts with Town Counsel Karis North and Library Reuse Committee members Joel Fishman and Judy Crosby. The drafts removed "buyer" and "seller" language, and the final title is a Land Development and Due Diligence Agreement. Its terms, as summarized in the July 22 minutes:

• A 60-day due diligence period, which can be extended up to 30 more days only if both sides agree in writing
• An appraisal based on the developer's schematic design, finishes and project budget, giving both an as-is value and an as-complete value
• Either party may withdraw at any time, and the town's termination right is stated as "sole and absolute discretion"
• A condominium of roughly 10 to 19 units, with at least one unit listed on the town's Subsidized Housing Inventory
• No set purchase price, and no decision yet on whether the town is paid in a lump sum or per unit
• No obligation to transfer the property, and 30 days of best efforts afterward to begin negotiating a purchase and sale agreement

The agreement does not adopt Paramount's $460,000 figure or its per-unit payments. Price and payment structure are left to be negotiated after due diligence, and the appraisal gives the town an independent number to bring to that negotiation. The minutes also note a pending minor edit that would add developer financials and a letter of intent from a construction lender to the documents Paramount must deliver.

Where The Clock Stands

These are the dates the town has put on the public record:

1. July 27, 2026. Due diligence begins.
2. August 3, 2026. Turkington tells the Finance Committee that Paramount has hired engineering and design consultants and begun talks with the Historical Commission about exterior changes. He says the town has retained an appraiser and expects the appraisal once preliminary design is finished.
3. September 24, 2026. Turkington tells the Select Board he expects final documentation on September 25, that the developer is finishing its last two major items over the next couple of weeks, and that the town expects more information by October 13.

The 60-day period that began July 27 ran through late September. A mutual extension could have carried it about 30 days further, to late October. The latest status in the posted minutes is the September 24 update. Anything decided since then will show up next in the Select Board's minutes, which are posted in the town's Agenda Center, and in the appraisal itself.

The Appraisal Is The Document To Read

The rules on what becomes public are specific. Crosby told the board in July that the developer's documents are exempt from public records requests until a purchase and sale agreement is signed. The town's appraisal is a public document as soon as the town receives it.

The appraisal will be the first public document to put an independent number next to Paramount's $460,000. Because it is based on the developer's own design, finishes and budget, it measures this specific 12-unit plan, not a theoretical best use of the land. The as-is figure shows what the building is worth to the town as it stands, rear-addition restriction included. The as-complete figure shows what the finished condominiums could be worth. The difference between the two indicates how much of the project's value comes from the conversion work itself.

The Historical Commission is involved too. Paramount's proposal commits to working with the Commission. In August, Turkington reported that the developer had already begun talks with the Commission about exterior changes. The design the appraisal is based on and the design the Commission eventually approves need to be the same building, or the numbers will have to be redone.

The Planning Board has also been following it. A Select Board member reported on September 24 that the Planning Board had discussed the Carnegie proposal and expected more information in the coming weeks. If talks move to a purchase and sale agreement, Paramount's documents become public, and residents will see the full financial picture for the first time.

For a sense of how Sharon's older buildings handle a change of use, our look at renovation potential in Sharon's housing stock covers the same pressures at the scale of a single home. More on the town is on our Sharon neighborhood page.

Talib Hussain Realty Group works through as-is and as-complete math like this with investors and owners of older properties across Sharon and the surrounding towns. If you are weighing a conversion or redevelopment of your own, we would be glad to go through the numbers with you. Let's Connect.