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Revitalization of 16th Street continued Friday as first steps were taken to create an updated streetscape.

The improvements will be part of an ongoing effort to upgrade the corridor, a major entrance into Sacramento giving many people their first impression of the capital city.

Once part of State Highway 160, the roadway deteriorated into a motel corridor that had grown extremely run-down by the 1990s. The street is home to longtime powerhouses like Simon's Restaurant and Luna's Cafe & Juice Bar. Newer businesses including Starbuck's, Pronto and Mochi have set up shop across from renovated Fremont Park.

The three-lane, one-way street has been a major focus for the city, state and Capitol Area Development Authority (CADA) for decades as the agencies seek to promote development around the Capitol and polish the capital city's image.

"What we're trying to do is stitch together a very vibrant, mixed-used street," said CADA Executive Director Paul Schmidt.

On Friday, CADA held its first 16th Street streetscape meeting with the Berkeley landscape design and planning firm MIG. The company was hired Thursday to design a conceptual plan to polish the look of 16th Street from the alley between Capitol and N streets south to S Street, said Marc de la Vergne, CADA's development manager for the capitol area. MIG also designed streetscape for CADA's R Street project.

The community's input on new streetscape elements will be sought this summer in public workshops to be scheduled by CADA, a joint powers authority between the city and state. CADA was set up to help build a dynamic urban neighborhood as part of the capitol campus envisioned in the state's Capitol Area Plan.

Other development is in the works to build on the success of the East End Office Complex, completed in the late 1990s at the east end of Capitol Park. The complex included five buildings -- all but one at 16th and Capitol streets -- and the East End Garage. The complex brought in 4,500 state workers and increased the neighborhood's marketability for new retail, housing and additional office space, he said.

"The fact is, it cleaned up that area," said Schmidt.

That also was the first successful development effort after an aborted attempt to build two office towers there in the 1960s. The colorful Stanford Park townhouses were among the city's first infill projects when they were built across from Fremont Park in the 1980s. CADA's next development, the Spanish-style Fremont Building on the east side of 16th between O and P Streets, brought mixed-use development into the neighborhood.

New housing that allows home ownership is a big part of the plan for 16th Street, Schmidt said.

"People want to live down here. If you build it, they will come," he said.

Both projects drew the attention of developers and kick-started new retail.

Now, there's new movement elsewhere in the East End Gateway project, on CADA-owned land on the blocks stretching north from Hot Italian on Q Street to the alley between Capitol and N streets. Five sites, including three currently vacant lots, are slated for development there.

In October 2010, Em Johnson Interest and Nehemiah Community Reinvestment Fund Holdings are expected to start construction on a $37 million, eight-story mid-rise containing 98 "entry-level" condos, 6,000 square feet of retail and 120 parking spaces. The "Site 1" project at 16th and N streets, across from the site of the future California Unity Center, is expected to be completed by 2012. The 1930s Modernist apartment building currently housing Capitol Gardens is available if someone wants to move it, according to CADA.

Ravel Rasmussen Properties is expected to start building on at least one more vacant lot at 16th and O streets in the next fiscal year, which begins June 30. The company will develop two lots, Sites 2 and 3, on either side of O Street on 16th Street's west side. Designs call for mixed use, including 24 market-rate apartments on Site 2 and 60 market-rate apartments on Site 3.

But with banks now willing to finance only half of a project, getting enough private investors to kick in the rest for two projects at the same time has been a challenge.

"In my 30 years, this has been the most difficult financing market I've ever seen," Schmidt said.

MNA Management, affiliated with Mogavero Notestine Associates, was chosen in May to build apartments and condos at 16th and P streets, currently occupied by an old motel CADA converted into single room occupancy (SRO) housing.

The motel is expected to be torn down in two years. CADA will try to help residents find new housing, but only those with Section 8 vouchers would have relocation rights guaranteed, he said.

Development of Site 5 has been put on hold due to financing. CADA has leased the house and land to a private daycare.

The city, state and CADA and Sac Housing and Redevelopment Agency partnered in 1997 to create the 16th Street Public Improvements Design Study. The $20,000 streetscape conceptual design will build on that study, said de la Vergne.

The plan will propose a "palette" of elements, including plantings, furniture, new sidewalk treatments and signs, he said. The plan will be used in development of Sites 1 through 4, and to help guide other public and private improvements other projects along 16th Street.

The conceptual plan is expected to be finished by September. The plan would include proposals for how much of the streetscape should be financed by developers. CADA will then work aggressively to raise funds for future phases of planning and installation of the streetscape, he said.

"We're looking forward to working with the city on this project. The city really has had an interest in 16th Street for a long time," he said.