The construction inside the soon-to-be completed Bayou Cafe rivals what is happening out front on North Pearl Street. Both the cafe and the street are strewn with equipment, construction materials, and, in some places, impassable debris. Despite the chaos, Bayou Cafe owner Ralph Spillenger, who already operates a Bayou Cafe on Route 50 in Glenville, sees his new venture and the city's burgeoning entertainment district as masterpieces waiting to happen.


``This is one of the only locations on Pearl Street with a panoramic view of the street,'' said Spillenger, who plans to make use of the metropolitan atmosphere outside the site that formerly housed the Yorkstone Pub. ``Instead of a Bayou back shack (the decor of his original location in Glenville), I'm going for more of a French Quarter ambience.''


Spillenger is just one example of the entrepreneurs and businesses lured downtown by the promise of an entertainment district, which has begun to breathe life back into what was once a ghost town after 5 p.m.


The idea of an entertainment district is not unique to Albany. In the 1990s, Buffalo, Syracuse and Rochester all undertook similar projects. While the districts are in various stages of development, Rochester entrepreneur Michael Hodgdon, who owns an Empire Brewing Co. restaurant in each of the three cities, said all the projects have been successful.


``There is a difference in how the projects evolved,'' he said. ``In Syracuse, (the district) was thought up by private investors; in Rochester, it was the government administrating the growth. Both strategies have worked remarkably well.''


Rochester's High Falls district, which is the oldest of the upstate cities' entertainment districts, started in 1994 with a goal of filling vacant buildings downtown. Located across from Frontier Field, home of the Rochester Red Wings minor league baseball team, the area was the perfect place to create a pattern of nighttime foot traffic.


As a veteran of the project, Fashun Ku, Rochester's commissioner of economic development, had this advice for Albany:


``You've got to have a hook, something like the Frontier stadium to bring them in,'' he said. ``And you must have a mixed-use area -- not only an entertainment center, but people who live and work there. And you've got to have a few success stories to bring the other people in.''


In 1997, the Downtown Albany Business Improvement District commissioned consultant Hunter Interests of Maryland to determine what had to be done to get an entertainment district up and runnning. Hunter's report, completed that December, recommended Pearl Street as the center of the district, anchored by the Pepsi Arena to the south and the Palace Theatre to the north. The vision also included a restaurant row on Broadway and lower Madison Avenue, a $20 million to $30 million aquarium at the Corning Preserve, and an urban entertainment center filled with bars and arcades.


While the urban entertainment center arrived last year in the form of national entertainment chain Jillian's, and was complemented by several other new breweries and live-music venues along the strip, the aquarium idea never panned out. Few new restaurants have moved into the Broadway/Madison area, and the reconstruction of Pearl Street, which is slated to be finished at about year's end, has temporarily slowed business along the street.


In addition, renovation plans for the Palace Theatre were suspended -- including the construction of a giant-screen IMAX movie theater and expansion of the stage -- until a task force can decide on joint management of the Palace and Proctor's Theatre in Schenectady. The two theaters have been battling over which should be enlarged and whether the Capital Region market can sustain both.


``We would like to be farther along there; we really wanted to get focused,'' said George Leveille, Albany's development and planning commissioner and a member of the Palace board.


A 24,280-square-foot Asian-themed plaza, a little to the north at the intersection of Livingston Avenue and Broadway, also has been stuck in its tracks because of a problem conveying title to the new owners. Leveille said the development group, Nine Dragons City Associates, still is interested in the project.


Despite the setbacks, city officials, downtown business owners and Capital Region residents who long have searched for something -- anything -- to do in Albany on a weekend night say the entertainment district is alive, well and actually fun.


``There are so many elements and components, it obviously can't be an overnight sensation,'' said Pamela Tobin, executive director of the Downtown Albany BID. ``But the goal was to fill those empty spaces with entertainment and nightlife, and we've done that.''


The opening of several new nightspots, including Savanna's on South Pearl Street, the Victory Cafe on Sheridan Avenue and the Albany Pump Station at Quackenbush Square, has helped propel people to the district and has increased business markedly at long-standing downtown establishments.


``The new businesses have really changed the perception of downtown,'' said Maggie Mancinelli-Cahill, producing artistic director at Capital Repertory Theatre, headquartered on North Pearl Street. ``It helps people make the journey (downtown), and people who haven't been here for a while are surprised at what they see.''


Mancinelli-Cahill said the new life in downtown has helped yearly attendance at the theater increase from 35,000 in 1995 to 60,000 in 1999.