PORT ARTHUR — Pedro Garza has always been mystified by small town America. The whole idea that a main artery of a city holds empty buildings and vacant lots is paradoxical. So when opening day came for the new Golden Triangle Empowerment Center and Incubator in downtown Port Arthur on Tuesday, it was refreshing for him to see a snapshot of a plan that’s working.

The fact that the center has already connected more than 200 people with jobs is also telling. Some of those jobs went to man the $7 billion Motiva Enterprises expansion project, which would put the refinery in the number one slot for U.S. production of crude.

The largest chunk of operating funds— ongoing financial pledges of 98 percent — comes from businesses in Port Arthur, Beaumont and Orange — the center’s service area.

“I honor you for building within, by utilizing an existing building, investing in real estate, business and local workforce,” said Garza, who is regional director of U.S. Department of Commerce Economic Development Administration. His organization provided $2.4 million in grants.

GTEC is housed in the former Aurora building, across from the old Hotel Sabine, and is a sprawling 18,600-square-foot, two-story facility with an “incubator” or new business launch pad on the top floor and three training labs, an auditorium and media center on the ground floor. Also upstairs is room for a restaurant in a 3,700-square-foot space.

The driving philosophy of the center is “tools for learning, skills for living.”

“No man or individual can be successful on their own boot straps,” said Melvin White, CEO of Digital Workforce Academy — a company evolving from Austin Eastside Story Foundation.

The successful Austin, Texas, east side component acted as a sort of blueprint for Port Arthur, even though the unemployment rate in that part of Austin was only about 11 percent in 2000.

“Austin east side built on the afterschool programs and building capacity,” White said. “In Port Arthur, we went right into business development.” More than 700 students finished the Austin arm of DWA, 85 percent of which secured technology jobs after graduation.

The strength of the program is the focus on the one — the individual needing redirection from one career to another, because of the economy, or the person needing skills to land their first job or start a new business.

Arthur Brandon, 38, is one of the success stories of GTEC. His life was pitched downward and his future looked bleak. His youth was spent serving time in prison — about 13 years. And then he heard about the center and its life skills programs while working at local refineries as a sandblaster. Today, Brandon is one of the intake coordinators for the program.

“You can come here and have something to come to,” Brandon said. “It’s family, it’s life, it’s employment.”

    Life skills workers use everyday illustrations to compel students and challenge them. Luke Owa often wads up a piece of paper and throws it on the floor the first day.

    “I watch and nobody picks up the paper. People walk by it. And at the end of the day, it’s still there,” Owa said.

    “It was identified, but went undelegated. It represents communication breakdown. Effectiveness of communication is first,” he added.

    There have been 17 classes since GTEC was housed in the Texas Workforce Center office and then a church before launching out to the new facility at 617 Procter St. An additional facility, at 875 Dixie Drive in Beaumont, will hold its first class June 1.

    For details on GTEC or the incubator, call 409-982-0522.

smartinez@panews.com