Standing on Front Street, Beth Tincher was more than satisfied to survey riverfront construction this week.

The project manager of the city's Docks Area Project and Riverfront Promenade watched construction workers set the promenade's concrete retaining wall and a circular seating wall that'll soon surround a water feature centerpiece playing off the city's historic waterfront.

"I'm excited, because it's been a long time in the making," said Tincher, standing south of Tower Bridge. "It's pretty amazing to come out to the site and see what this could be -- the potential of this highly under-utilized old brownfield site."

Sacramentans will get more than simply a mile of bike-and pedestrian-friendly riverside parkway when the promenade is finished by year's end. The $23 million, 14-acre promenade is seen as the next big piece of the plan to stimulate redevelopment of an old industrial area and to connect the Sacramento River to downtown Sacramento.

City officials have talked about redeveloping the Docks Area site for more than 13 years. Embassy Suites Sacramento and two blocks of promenade were built about 10 years ago near Tower Bridge.

As part of the 2003 Sacramento Riverfront Master Plan, the promenade will one day form the entrance to the Docks Area, a 30-acre mixed-use area expected to hold housing, shops, restaurants, office towers and possibly a hotel. The combined 44-acre site is one of the city's only redevelopment opportunities along the river, said Tincher, a senior project manager with the City of Sacramento Economic Development Department.

The area has a strong link to the Sacramento River's prominent past. The site was once the unloading point for commercial cargo being shipped from San Francisco to the city, gold mines and beyond.

The city put the Docks project out to bid and have given a San Francisco partnership formed by Kenwood Investments and Wilson Meany Sullivan an exclusive right to negotiate (ERN) to redevelop the mostly-abandoned former industrial area. The partners have worked together on other complex projects and are currently managing the 400-acre redevelopment of Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay.

Staff from the city's Department of Utilities and the Redevelopment Agency are currently studying the feasibility of moving Pioneer Reservoir, which holds excess storm drainage and sewage from downtown before pumping it back into the regional water system. The study's results are expected to be presented to the city council in July, said Tincher.

After that has been completed, the city is required to adopt a Docks-specific plan and certify the final Environmental Impact Report (EIR) as part of the ERN agreement with the developers. The city is preparing the final EIR and will start the public hearing process for the EIR and the Docks-specific plan in August or September.

The city can then begin negotiating with the developer on the Disposition and Development Agreement to determine which party will fund what parts of the project, she said. The developer would then work on the design and tentative map approval.

The promenade will stretch from O Street south to Miller Park. The parkway's gem will be one-third-acre Pioneer Landing Park, which will contain a public plaza holding a "cloud vessel," a misting water feature art piece designed to resemble a boat's hull in honor of the riverfront's past. Other, smaller art pieces will be scattered throughout the parkway.

The promenade and especially the large water feature are being designed to enhance the city's image. The feature will be lit at night and viewable from the adjacent freeway and the California State Railroad Museum excursion train based in Old Sacramento.

The final design of the Docks Area has yet to be worked out and is being impacted by the housing and commercial real estate markets, Tincher said.

However, concepts being considered include 1,000 to 1,155 housing units; 45,000 square feet of commercial space for shops, restaurants and other businesses that can draw people to the waterfront; 500,000 square feet of high-rise office tower space; and a possible hotel. The office space is expected to be built in 20 to 30 years as demand arises, she added.

Following the current timeline, an estimated $14 million in infrastructure construction in the Docks Area would begin between mid-2011 to the start of 2012.

Suzanne Hurt is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. She can be reached at suzanne@sacramentopress.com or 804-2856.