[travis bickle]

Hello everyone. It's been awhile. Good to see so many of you are... well, still being yourselves. After a brutal couple of years, things seem to be on the rebound. Sorry to see so little activity here tho. Is there another forum or site where you all hang now?

Development in San Diego is building momentum in a way I hope Sacramento will soon. I am working on several projects throughout the area and can tell you the Development Services Department in downtown San Diego is nearly as busy today was it was in 2006. Given the last few years and the continued bleak outlook at the start of 2012, that's amazing.

But there are some lessons that could apply to Sacramento now, especially with the arena possibilities.

San Diego, with all of it's physical blessings, still had a largely decrepit downtown well into the 1980s. That changed in 1987 with the opening of the waterfront convention center. With thousands of conventioneers pouring into downtown several nights a week, local restaurants, clubs and pubs began opening to serve them. These business's didn't have to rely strictly on the neighborhood population to thrive. Unless you already have existing huge densities, this is critical. And these millions of dollars generated by these visitors provided a revenue stream to the city that simply would not have been there otherwise.

But as more began to open, that magical critical mass was reached and local residents so enjoyed the lifestyle and energy, they grew tired of having to drive to be a part of it and began to seek homes closer to the action.

This trend was recharged once again when Petco Park opened with 30k flooding downtown San Diego streets 81 times a year.

The take-away here is that catalyst development works. San Diego's downtown, with these two energy drivers, is now among the most vibrant and exciting in the nation. Of course other factors are involved, but this is the most obvious (and rightly so) link.

My own firm is working on a possible 24-story apartment project in an area of Downtown San Diego I would have never thought feasible. The spill-over from the convention center and Petco has now made even these areas of downtown desirable (a block away there is a 600 unit apartment highrise and two blocks away a 900+ unit highrise was just approved.).

At this point in the development cycle, it will be difficult for Downtown Sacramento to reignite without some type of catalyst to draw people there first. As we have learned from the San Diego experience, this type of development helps create and sustain an attractive and active lifestyle that some locals will want to be a part of. And that's really how it begins.

An arena, especially in Downtown Plaza, would fill this role perfectly.