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This fall, estimates are that four to six skyscraping cranes will be reshaping the skyline. At 301 Capitol Mall, developer John Saca's two 54-story towers will  begin their ascent. The structural elements of that building are enormous, says Bill Thomas, the city's director of economic development. There's going to be two full months of pile driving. There are 48 miles of piles that have to be driven into the ground 90 feet deep. It's going to be a little bit of noise.

In August, the crane arriv ed for Denver developer Craig Nassi's 38-story superluxe Aura condo building at 601 Capitol Mall, and next month, expect to see a delivery of steel for David S. Taylor Interests' 25-floor office tower at 621 Capitol Mall. 

We think there are re ally nine blocks north of the Capitol that are going to evolve as key to the downtown core, says Kipp Blewett of Rubicon Partners, managing partner of the Joie de Vivre Hospitality boutique hotel going in at 926 J St. We've got a confluence of residential, retail, hotel and office space all breaking at the same time. We still view K Street as being the core, and we think that this hotel is going to put 100,000 new visitors into the J-K-L corridor.

 Nothing Happens Overnight

Work on the transformation has been going on for years. As executive director of the Downtown Sacramento Partnership, a private nonprofit group dedicated to improving Sacramento's central business district, Michael Ault has been watching revitalization efforts ebb and flow since 1991. Now that plans are turning into realities, he's got a front-row seat. I think over the years, there was a feeling that downtown was a long way from its potential, he says. There had been many starts and stops, and people got to the point where they said ‘revitalization' was a word they just got tired of hearing.

Rewind to 1995. Back then, elected officials and city agencies looked at successful business improvement districts in Seattle, Houston, Denver, Phoenix and Philadelphia. The result? Sacramento formed the Downtown Sacramento Partnership: a group of 800 or so business and property owners who support development. They wanted a voice at the table where decisions were made, Ault says. We had some significant early successes, yes, but our first chairman of the board, David Taylor, also carried the organization through some very challenging times. Downtown didn't look good, didn't feel good; many would argue it didn't smell good either in certain locations.