Orrin Thiessen

Orrin Thiessen, a Sonoma County developer, is fashioning a new downtown for Windsor, a small town near Santa Rosa.
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Developer Orrin Thiessen said he runs his business based on intuition rather than crunching numbers (photo by J.T. Long).
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There are independent jewelry stores, a children's book store, restaurants and, as a tribute to Main Street America, a sweet shop/soda fountain, which Thiessen said is packed practically every day.

Thiessen said this mix is just what people have been waiting for.

On a recent weekday morning, traffic at Windsor Town Green included an older couple walking by the magazine/art store to the café, a woman opening a store for the day and lots of construction workers.

"The energy is just now starting to really build," Thiessen said while walking the main street in his office attire of shorts and a plaid shirt.

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When asked about the similarities to Main Street Disneyland, Thiessen's response was: "What's wrong with Disneyland? Walt Disney was trying to recreate his hometown; Thiessen said he is bringing the vision to life by having people actually live in it.

Thiessen likes to have his fingerprints on everything. "It's just faster if I am the developer, architect and the builder and sharing the plans with myself," he said. He subs out most of the work, but keeps close tabs on every nail used to build his dream. "I run my business based on intuition rather than crunching numbers," he said only minutes after pointing out that his calculator doesn't work for big equations.
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Thiessen, who had already developed a small mixed-use project for nearby downtown Graton, saw the opportunity that other developers approached by the town had rejected.

"We didn't have to do a lot of research to see that we were hemorrhaging sales taxes to Santa Rosa," said Thiessen. Not long ago, he said Windsor, a town of 25,000, had no restaurants; it has seven now.

Thiessen approached the council with a plan that incorporated all the mixed-use, smart-growth strategies it had envisioned.

But Thiessen quickly learned that the most difficult thing about being a visionary is finding funding sources that share that vision.

"Several lenders turned us down, even ones I had worked with for years," he said. National Bank of the Redwoods finally gave him a loan to complete the first building and when that was a success, others started to return his phone calls.

Thiessen started by buying up some of the blighted buildings and doing historical re-creations. In some cases, he had to get creative. One resident who was not motivated to sell ended up trading for a condo when his wife fell in love with the plan. Another decided to open a commercial space in exchange for his land.

"I did whatever it took," Thiessen said.

The transformation could be called gentrification, but Thiessen said that has a negative connotation so he prefers the term "redevelopment."
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"There was a time when it was illegal to do this kind of development," Thiessen said from his office on the Green.
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Thiessen has turned down a number of cities who have come to him with requests to do a similar project in their downtowns. He has turned them down because he said he doesn't want to get too big.

He has agreed to redevelop nearby downtown Cotati, partly because it is near his home, which is a nothing like his developments. He lives in a craftsman-style home on a 140-acre nature preserve. He took on the Cotati project partly because, like in Windsor, he sees a city willing to do some creative master planning.

He is also turning a school in Occidental into residential and has a mixed-use project in the small town of Forestville on the drawing board.

Orrin Thiessen, a Sonoma County developer, is fashioning a new downtown for Windsor, a small town near Santa Rosa.
...
Developer Orrin Thiessen said he runs his business based on intuition rather than crunching numbers (photo by J.T. Long).
...
There are independent jewelry stores, a children's book store, restaurants and, as a tribute to Main Street America, a sweet shop/soda fountain, which Thiessen said is packed practically every day.

Thiessen said this mix is just what people have been waiting for.

On a recent weekday morning, traffic at Windsor Town Green included an older couple walking by the magazine/art store to the café, a woman opening a store for the day and lots of construction workers.

"The energy is just now starting to really build," Thiessen said while walking the main street in his office attire of shorts and a plaid shirt.
...
Walt Disney was trying to recreate his hometown; Thiessen said he is bringing the vision to life by having people actually live in it.

Thiessen likes to have his fingerprints on everything."It's just faster if I am the developer, architect and the builder and sharing the plans with myself," he said.He subs out most of the work, but keeps close tabs on every nail used to build his dream."I run my business based on intuition rather than crunching numbers," he said only minutes after pointing out that his calculator doesn't work for big equations.

Marriage Made in Heaven
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Thiessen, who had already developed a small mixed-use project for nearby downtown Graton, saw the opportunity that other developers approached by the town had rejected.

"We didn't have to do a lot of research to see that we were hemorrhaging sales taxes to Santa Rosa," said Thiessen.Not long ago, he said Windsor, a town of 25,000, had no restaurants; it has seven now.

Thiessen approached the council with a plan that incorporated all the mixed-use, smart-growth strategies it had envisioned.

But Thiessen quickly learned that the most difficult thing about being a visionary is finding funding sources that share that vision.

"Several lenders turned us down, even ones I had worked with for years," he said.National Bank of the Redwoods finally gave him a loan to complete the first building and when that was a success, others started to return his phone calls.

Thiessen started by buying up some of the blighted buildings and doing historical re-creations.In some cases, he had to get creative.One resident who was not motivated to sell ended up trading for a condo when his wife fell in love with the plan.Another decided to open a commercial space in exchange for his land.

"I did whatever it took," Thiessen said.

The transformation could be called gentrification, but Thiessen said that has a negative connotation so he prefers the term "redevelopment."
...
"There was a time when it was illegal to do this kind of development," Thiessen said from his office on the Green.
...
Thiessen has turned down a number of cities who have come to him with requests to do a similar project in their downtowns.He has turned them down because he said he doesn't want to get too big.

He has agreed to redevelop nearby downtown Cotati, partly because it is near his home, which is a nothing like his developments.He lives in a craftsman-style home on a 140-acre nature preserve.He took on the Cotati project partly because, like in Windsor, he sees a city willing to do some creative master planning.

He is also turning a school in Occidental into residential and has a mixed-use project in the small town of Forestville on the drawing board.

Now the college drop-out is a lecturer at Sonoma State University on his brand of new urbanism and people are finally listening.

In 1994, Sonoma County developer Orrin Thiessen began buying properties and pumping millions of dollars into the town.

Mylette Welch, who is part owner of an art gallery that opened this month, sees the potential positives and negatives in it.

"It will take a few years for it to get like Disneyland," she said."I live in Healdsburg, which is so charming, but it's expensive.It turned into a little Carmel.

"Graton was pokey.Now it's fun," she said.

> > > > > > Developer Thiessen is designing a village center for a town that lacks one" />
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Developer Thiessen is designing a village center for a town that lacks one
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But if Orrin Thiessen has his way, Forestville won't be another nowheresville for long.As Sonoma County's largest mixed-use developer and the designer-builder of the celebrated new downtown Windsor and the resuscitation of the once-decrepit cannery town of Graton, Thiessen is now designing a village center for what has long been a centerless village.

As I stand on the site, I wonder, can you just make a town?Like so many San Franciscans, I associate good places with the palimpsest workings of history.I have to keep reminding myself that most new development fails because it's ill-conceived - not simply because it's new.

Talking to Thiessen, I soon realize why so few developers try to do what he does.It may be interesting, but it ain't easy.

"This is the most difficult project I've taken on," he tells me.
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But that project was never built, and eventually, the Forestville Planning Association recommended that Ramona Crinella bring in Thiessen, who had become known for his work in Windsor and Graton.
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So two years ago, Thiessen bought eight acres in a limited partnership with the Crinellas and began designing the town center with lots of community input.But the land itself, combined with modern civil rights laws, presents its own challenges.

"The site is sloped, and according to the (Americans with Disabilities Act) ADA, you can't have a sidewalk that is more than 5 percent," he explains. (Yes, that's right, San Francisco could never be built today).

Highway 116, the bane and boon that both links the town to other places and effectively ruins it, must also be redesigned.

"The freeway is supposed to eventually bypass the town, but we don't know when that will happen," he says, pointing out where the new freeway will cut around the new downtown plan.He has plans to build part of the freeway into the project, but the regulation involving freeway building is proving formidable.
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But if anyone is qualified to create a downtown on undeveloped land that has been a focus of vitriolic contention for more than 27 years, it's Thiessen.He's got local cred.

His career as a developer began with fixing up houses in Forestville in the 1970s.His wife is a fifth-generation Forestville native.His children attend the local public schools.More importantly, an odd amalgam of forces has primed Thiessen for the paradox of new town making in old historic towns.

As an environmental science student, he built a cottage out of recycled materials, and enjoyed the process so much that he ended up becoming a builder of spec homes and subdivisions.

But after buying up the one-block, boarded-up, rat-infested strip known as Graton and setting out to make it into a nice little town, he became an of impassioned proponent of "new urbanism," the urban planning movement that advocates building close-knit communities through dense housing in proximity to shops and retail in a pedestrian-friendly setting.

With Graton under his tool belt, he went on to design, build and develop the notoriously blighted downtown Windsor, a project of 250 homes, 80 shops and a town green, which was honored last month as one of the nation's best new developments by the Sierra Club.

Now he's also working on planning a large mixed-use area for downtown Cotati and turning Occidental Elementary School into condominiums.

"In Forestville, I want to create a village atmosphere for the people that work and live there, so that there's a strong sense of community, a place to get together, light the Christmas tree, play music," he said."I'm trying to create a place that would be like any other small town downtown with mom and pop stores."

Thiessen does some things virtually no other developer does - he doesn't allow chain stores in his developments.He controls the mix of merchants to encourage walking, interaction and a lively street life.He organizes the businesses in hopes that they will create community events.

"It's really just old urbanism," he tells me over a brie and Black Forest ham sandwich at Willowwood, the bustling cafe/general store in Graton.

With no architectural training, he seems to have little desire to make a personal architectural statement.He tells me proudly about buildings he designed based on old photographs of Victorian buildings from the area.Indeed, the faux Victorian style he employs for Windsor has earned him some critics - who compare his brightly -painted, false-front, three-story row houses to Disneyland's Main Street.