The Graton Day Labor Center - Sonoma County's first hiring hall for day laborers - announced Tuesday that it has purchased the Bowen Street property that's been its home since 2007.
The organization bought the property for $350,000 from developer Orin Thiessen, who helped establish the center but was forced to sell it to help reduce debt after declaring bankruptcy last summer.
Escrow on the property closed a few weeks ago, but the organization delayed announcement until it could notify donors. The labor center will launch a capital campaign to help repay a $200,000 anonymous loan that made the purchase possible.
Ricardo Garcia, executive director of the labor center, said the purchase means the labor center "is here to stay."
"We're just so happy that this project is going to have longevity as a result of this," Garcia said.
In 2004, before it had a permanent location, the labor center was established as an orderly hiring process for day laborers who regularly gathered on Graton Road. From a folding table placed in front of the Graton Community Club, labor advocates conducted an worker lottery system.
The need for a physical location soon became evident and in 2005 Thiessen, the developer who built Windsor's Town Green, offered to lease to the center vacant property he owned on Bowen Street. Thiessen threw in a portable school building and spent about $125,000 on sewer hookups, landscaping and bathroom facilities and a building foundation.
Thiessen said Tuesday that his Chapter 11 reorganization plan included selling the property to the day labor center to avoid foreclosure, which he said could have "wiped out" the center's lease.
"I didn't want to do that," Thiessen said, adding that giving the center the opportunity to purchase the property was the best thing for the Graton community.
The site, which is two-thirds of an acre, includes the Stone Creek Zen Center.
Beyond its capacity as a hiring hall for laborers, many of whom are in the country illegally, the center has a number of other programs. These include job skill development, occupational safety training, English language instruction, medical referrals and leadership training.
"Undocumented workers have the highest injury fatality rate," said Christy Lubin, president of the center's board of directors. "We are not a union but we operate very much like a union operates."
In the past year, the organization raised $140,000 toward the purchase of the property. The anonymous donor provided a bridge loan of $200,000 and workers themselves have raised $4,000, though their goal is to raise $15,000.
The center intends to raise $1 million to pay the bridge loan and to fund additional programs and programming costs, Lubin said. The organization wants to build kitchen and a medical consultation room.
On July 29, a free concert celebrating the 100th anniversary of the birth of folk legend Woody Guthrie will be held in Old Railroad Square, with all proceeds going to the Graton Day Labor Center. The event will feature Ramblin' Jack Elliott, a Guthrie disciple.
Contact Staff Writer Martin Espinoza at 521-5213 or martin.espinoza@pressdemocrat.com.
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