It’s been a long time coming, but the fully-entitled One Santa Fe mixed-use project, designed by Michael Maltzan in downtown Los Angeles’ Arts District,  is finally nearing the start of construction. After nearly a year of reworking the final drawings to minimize costs, the $150 million project, developed by a partnership that includes the McGregor Company, Polis Builders, and Goldman Sachs,  will begin construction in mid 2010 with an anticipated completion 36 months thereafter.The 435,000 square feet development will include 438 units, 77,000 square feet of ground floor commercial uses, and 750 parking spaces. From the onset, the 4-acre project has been lauded for its proximity to the Los Angeles River, but its sinuous form acts as a better wall than a window to the nascent river restoration efforts. Mimicking the long, slender footprint of the adjacent Southern California Institute of Architecture (Sci-Arc), One Santa Fe blocks both the river and the maintenance yard from public view. While an attractive new Michael Maltzan building with an activated ground floor and street level open space is surely prettier than looking at a train maintenance yard, its 65-year land lease from Metro does not necessarily guarantee its perpetuity. However, the start of any major project is a good sign for the stalled downtown renaissance, which had been devastated by the credit crisis.  —Gunnar Hand