It's only half a block, but it is long enough to give passers-by a glimpse into what all of downtown Augusta might look like a decade from now.

"Feel free to walk on it," Margaret Woodard, the executive director of the Downtown Development Authority, said to the crowd at Friday's unveiling of the organization's streetscape demonstration block.

The sidewalk in front of The Bee's Knees restaurant on 10th Street between Broad and Ellis streets has been under reconstruction for six months. It now sports vintage gas-lamp-style streetlights, a new concrete sidewalk, brick pavers, flower planters near business doors and crape myrtle trees.

"Ultimately you are going to see all of downtown redeveloped in this fashion," Augusta Mayor Deke Copenhaver said.

The block also has the first of the Augusta Convention and Visitors Bureau's wayfinder signs, a map of the downtown area that points out attractions.

The block's total cost was $192,000, including about $30,000 in donations and in-kind services. Most of the troubles and costs were associated with the old utilities under the sidewalk, officials said.

The next stop is the 900 block of Ellis Street, which will be redeveloped in the same manner through a partnership with the developers of the White's Building, Ms. Woodard said.

"Public-private partnerships do work," said Steven Kendrick, the chairman of the development authority's board.

The authority picked the 10th Street block to be its example because it is a visible location that hadn't been redeveloped in previous streetscape projects.