Breaking ground: Sacramento Kings mark beginning of downtown arena

The pejorative term "hole in the ground" for downtown Sacramento had a more positive, forward-looking connotation Wednesday, as the Sacramento Kings kicked off the process of turning their hole into a new arena.

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Slideshow: Arena groundbreaking

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With a traditional groundbreaking ceremony featuring owner Vivek Ranadivé, Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson and a handful of local youngsters, the team began the two-year process of turning the empty area that was Downtown Plaza's eastern half into a $477 million structure promised to be like no other.

"Let me try to put this in perspective: From this moment forward, there's no more, 'here we stay,'" Johnson said, referring to the rallying cry in recent years for keeping the Kings in Sacramento. With the arena as a centerpiece, the city can now look to establish itself as a beacon city for big events, locally sourced food, affordable housing and new jobs, Johnson said, concluding with, "From this moment forward, it's 'here we come.'"

Despite the ceremonial dirt turning, though, there wasn't a lot of construction to see Wednesday. Kings President Chris Granger said aside from remaining demolition near the edges of the work site, progress in the next couple months will be in the form of site excavation, including going down another 10 feet and installing dewatering systems.

Follow that will be the beginning work on the future arena foundation, and by early next year, Granger said, steel will begin rising into the air.

"We're still on pace," he said, of the planned arena opening in fall 2016. "So far, so good."

But when that happens, Johnson said, it'll show the city's upward trajectory, as opposed to its presence on lists during the Great Recession as one of the least livable cities in the U.S.

Ben van der Meer covers real estate, development, construction, transportation and the business of sports for the Sacramento Business Journal.