By Nancy C. Rodriguez
Eagle-Tribune Writer

LAWRENCE -- Not too long ago Charles L. ''Chick'' LoPiano sat with Peter Vanier and Robert Hatem from the Lower Merrimack Valley Regional Employment Board plotting ways to put the long vacant Sutherland Building on Essex Street to good use.

Eighteen months and $735,000 later, the building is about to begin a new life as The Riverway Early Learning Center, featuring classrooms, a health-care center and full-service kitchen. It will be the first of its kind in the state.

''For 10 years this building has been dead,'' said Mr. LoPiano, assistant director of Greater Lawrence Community Action Council Inc., and co-chair of Lawrence Community Partnerships for Children. ''Now it will be filled. It will be alive.''

Mr. LoPiano calls the building an ''educational condo,'' with different agencies, such as the Plains Community Child Care Center, YMCA, YWCA, Greater Lawrence Community Action Council Inc., Early Headstart, and Lawrence Public Schools running programs in the center. Early Headstart is for infants and toddlers, and is the first of its kind in Lawrence. All the agencies will eventually be certified by the National Association for the Education of Young Children.

The overall center is run by the Lawrence Community Partnerships for Children Council in conjunction with Greater Lawrence Community Action Council Inc. The center is for children of Lawrence residents who work. Tuition is based on a sliding scale. There are still openings in some of the programs.

Once a dusty department store, the building's first floor has been transformed into a bright space, with plenty of windows and doors.

The center's winding hallways feature colorful tiles meant to symbolize the Merrimack River. A section of the ceiling is decorated to look like one of the city's bridges. Special lights also were installed so students can grow plants in the building. A basement space has been renovated into a training room and office space.

The construction is being paid for with a combination of federal and state money.

The idea was to make the 14,564 square foot space ''soft and inviting and not in a basement,'' said Julie A. Tetreault, program director of Lawrence Community Partnerships For Children.

Some of the classrooms will open in September, with the rest coming on line in October.

Ms. Tetreault said the building will help make a dent in the number of children of working parents waiting to get into child-care programs.

About 200 infants and 180 preschoolers are waiting for placements in the Lawrence area, she said.

''There is such a need for early childhood education in this community,'' Ms. Tetreault said.

The center will house about 120 children, with a second phase accommodating another 75. Hours of operation will match working hours, with the center opening at 7:30 a.m. and closing at 5:30 p.m.

The center will create about 30 new jobs, Mr. LoPiano said.

Children also will be able to get health care at a on-site office run by Greater Lawrence Family Health Center. Classes in parenting and other skills also will be offered.

The center is the start of what will be a $1 million renovation of the Sutherland, Stearns and Shawmut buildings. All the buildings are owned by the Lower Merrimack Valley Regional Employment Board.