Sonoma County Library has closed on a $12.78 million purchase of a 72,000-square-foot office building in Petaluma, setting up a move that will relocate nearly 100 administrative employees out of Rohnert Park by fall 2027. The 15-library system finalized the deal on September 4 for the three-story building at 1400 N. McDowell Blvd., part of the two-building Sequoia Center office complex in the Redwood Business Park.
The purchase was reported by the Press Democrat, and closed at $177.50 per square foot after competitive bond pricing on August 13 drew nine bids and produced a 4.04% true interest cost. The bond transaction itself closed August 27, and the Library Commission had authorized the acquisition back on June 3 before approving the issuance and sale of the 2026 revenue bonds on August 5. Commissioners also signed off on related budget adjustments on September 2, just days before the sale closed.
Library director Erika Thibault said the acquisition represents a significant long-term investment in the Sonoma County Library system, according to the newspaper's reporting. Matt White, another figure quoted in that coverage, said the transaction would bring a significant county government presence to Petaluma and called it a great first step.
Why Petaluma, and Why Now
The timing lines up with a soft office market. Petaluma posted the highest total office vacancy rate among tracked Sonoma County submarkets in the second quarter, at 27.9%, with 1.02 million square feet of total vacancy across the city. Direct vacancy alone stood at 898,248 square feet, a 24.5% direct vacancy rate, while sublease space added another 126,720 square feet, a 3.5% sublease vacancy rate.
That compares with a countywide office vacancy rate of 17.3%, according to the same reporting. Santa Rosa's rate sat at 13.3%, Rohnert Park's at 24.9%, and the North corridor submarket at 8.2% — figures that underscore just how much slack existed in Petaluma's commercial market when the library system went shopping for a headquarters.
Basin Street Properties had owned the building for most of the period since constructing it in 1996, and the firm sold it to Sonoma County Library as part of this deal. The property sits within Sequoia Center at Redwood Business Park, which according to Basin Street Properties consists of two office buildings — one three-story and one four-story — and includes outdoor patio areas, sports courts, a landscaped pond with walking paths, and 10 Level 2 EV charging stations. Glen Dowling, Tony Sarno and Jordan Lazar represented Basin Street in the transaction, while Kevin Doran represented the library system.
Debt Structure Keeps Sales Tax Out of the Deal
Debt-service payments on the acquisition are projected to average about $712,500 annually over 30 years, and those payments will be supported by property-tax revenues rather than the countywide library sales tax. That distinction matters because Sonoma County voters extended that 0.125% sales tax indefinitely through Measure W in November 2024 with 68.1% approval, according to the California Secretary of State. That tax, which generates roughly $18 million a year and was originally passed as Measure Y in 2016 before it was set to expire in 2027, is explicitly not pledged toward this property-tax-backed debt. Overall taxpayer funding for the library system runs about $40 million annually, with property taxes providing roughly 60% of operating revenue and the sales tax providing the rest, per the Sebastopol Times.
Sonoma County Library operates as an independent Joint Powers Authority established in 1975 and revised in 2014, governed by a Library Commission. The new Petaluma building will become a centralized location for administration and other systemwide functions, replacing the current headquarters at 6135 State Farm Drive in Rohnert Park.
According to the County of Sonoma, the Board of Supervisors approved the project scope and next steps for a proposed Sonoma County Government Center on July 24, 2024.
96 Employees, One Big Move
The library system plans to bring 96 employees to Petaluma next year, with the workforce coming primarily from the Rohnert Park administrative site. Planned improvements to the new building are set to begin in early 2027, with the library targeting an October 2027 move-in and full use of the space as its new headquarters that fall.
The relocation lands amid record demand on the library system. Sonoma County Library logged 4.4 million total checkouts systemwide during the 2023-24 fiscal year, an 8% jump over the prior year, and the system ranked fifth statewide in digital borrowing on the Libby app, as Hoodline previously reported. Library leadership has pointed to that surge in usage as justification for modernizing operations across its 15 locations.
Meanwhile, the current Rohnert Park headquarters lobby is not sitting idle during the transition. Starting today, it is serving as a temporary Library To-Go site while the nearby Rohnert Park-Cotati Regional Library branch undergoes a $1.9 million, four-month overhaul, offering hold pickups, browsing, and self-checkout through January 2027. That overhaul follows a broader pattern of recent investment in the system's Petaluma footprint, where the Petaluma Regional Library branch at 100 Fairgrounds Drive completed a yearlong, top-to-bottom modernization in August 2025 after operating out of a temporary mini-library at the Kenilworth Teen Center during construction.
Staffing and Transit Context
In 2018, workers represented by SEIU Local 1021 delivered petitions to library commissioners demanding adequate staffing, according to SEIU Local 1021.
Geographically, the new headquarters lands in Petaluma. Whether the library system will retain, sell, or surrender its current Rohnert Park building once the transition completes next fall remains an open question, as does how shifting nearly 100 administrative jobs from Rohnert Park to Petaluma will affect each city's local tax base.
