Saint Francis Retreat Center is set in the rolling hills of San Juan Bautista and receives thousands of visitors every year. Many visitors travel hundreds of miles to spend the weekend in the majestic retreat. The retreat sits on 73 Acres and includes many buildings, a small lake and magnificent views. In 2006, tragedy struck in the form of an electrical fire in the 142 year old ranch house. All six friars sleeping in the second floor bedrooms were quick to vacate the building and escaped without injury. Though the fire was a raging inferno, firefighters were able to keep the blaze contained without damaging any surrounding buildings or trees.

Once the charred remains were removed, the design of a new state of the art facility commenced. The new dining hall is 11,134 SF and features a large dining room, kitchen, conference rooms, laundry facilities, office space, and restrooms with a capacity of 668. The retreat center teamed up with XL Construction and the Don Chapin Company to complete the facilities new structure. Construction began in 2008 with a completion date in 2009.

The construction of the building pad was unique in a couple of ways. First, the retreat center is located directly adjacent to the San Andreas Fault line with an undocumented fault line running through the center of the proposed building pad. Second, the old ranch house had a substantially sized basement that had not been compacted correctly. Sub-excavation reached to a depth of 14’ across most of the building pad and 9’ in other areas.

The Don Chapin Company, XL Construction and the Saint Francis Retreat Center staff made an excellent team in order to keep the project on time and under budget.