Sleek high-rises pierce the cobalt blue skyline. Sailboats drift lazily on a lake shimmering like sequins in the Arizona desert. It’s not a mirage. It’s the stunning cityscape of downtown Tempe, an epicenter of today’s boom in downtown living.

A trendsetter, Tempe began reinventing its downtown as an alluring place to live, work and play more than a decade ago. Along Mill Avenue, tree-shaded brick pathways wend past more than 170 chic eateries, shops, boutiques, and nightclubs. The pathways link businesses such as U.S. Airways’ headquarters, the regional headquarters for Chase Manhattan Bank and a number of public relations firms, law firms, computer companies, and architect’s offices. It’s all within easy walking distance of hotels, Arizona State University and outdoor recreation at Tempe Town Lake.

Characterized by “a youthful, energy-filled synergism,” downtown Tempe is expected to lure 10,000 new urbanites to 5,000 new condominiums and lofts over the next five years, according to city estimates.

The city’s flourishing high-rise and mid-rise condominiums and lofts “attract two very diverse groups,” according to Jay Butler, director of the Arizona Real Estate Center at Arizona State University. “Aging Americans, the empty nesters, who want to move away from suburban sprawl, and the young entrepreneurial worker who wants to live where the action is,” he told The Christian Science Monitor.