the lost action hero

"I'm a purist," he says. "I would preserve the neighborhood as it is. I don't want it turned into Disneyland."

But those working on Stadium Walk say Schwarzenegger's magic kingdom is alive and well and that Denver can still expect to witness the opening of a Planet Hollywood a stone's throw from Coors Field.

"We're actively leasing the retail space and making good progress," says John Lehigh, the former director of construction at Coors Field who was hired last year to oversee development of Stadium Walk. Lehigh says he's seeking tenants and negotiating with an undisclosed movie-theater chain to open a multiplex with a dozen or more screens.

In response to neighborhood criticism, Lehigh says the $70 to $80 million project has increased the number of planned parking spaces from 300 to 500. The development has also been redesigned, he says, to include a larger number of lofts on the Wazee Street side and to make most of the 200,000 square feet of retail space face the street instead of an interior courtyard.

Sources familiar with the project say officials want to break ground in 1999 and are in serious negotiations with several retailers. Lehigh will say only that Schwarzenegger's project will break ground when the market is ready for it.

Despite the fact that the Pavilions snagged the high-profile tenants like Niketown--and the fact that the only publicly announced tenant at Stadium Walk so far is Arnold's own Planet Hollywood--Lehigh insists that Stadium Walk can still be successful. Adds another person involved in trying to resuscitate Schwarzenegger's foray into big-time real estate, "It's unfortunate that when projects get quiet, people think the projects are dead.