On Tuesday morning, County Executive Douglas M. Duncan (D) and U.S. Rep. Christopher Van Hollen Jr. (D-Dist. 8) of Kensington toured the area to visit some of the businesses that have recently set up shop, and to see the progress made on other buildings set to open in an area that had been almost exclusively industrial.

The morning began at Mayorga Coffee Factory at the corner of Blair Mill Road and Georgia Avenue, and a look at what south Silver Spring will look like upon its completion. Mayorga Coffee Factory, "a community gathering place with great coffee," is a relatively new addition to south Silver Spring, Duncan said, and represents a "new wave" of businesses in the area.

Though it has been open for less than a year, business has been plentiful, said Martin Mayorga, founder of Mayorga Coffee Factory.

Other new businesses, like Discovery Creative and Technology Center at East West Highway and Newell Street, have also served to inject life into the area. DCTC is where Discovery Communications does much of its production.

As more people come to south Silver Spring, the county is working to make sure they feel safe walking in the area. With the help of some federal money, the county's Department of Housing and Community Affairs will create alleyways similar to Cady's Alley in Georgetown that will break up the neighborhood's long blocks and create a more pedestrian-friendly environment. One of the first alleyways to be developed lies between Mayorga and Izora Restaurant and Nite Club.

Now, the alleyway is uninviting to pedestrians, with cracked pavement and little lighting. But upon renovation, it will be called Arts Alley. Arts Alley will provide some outdoor seating and will be lighted and landscaped, said Elizabeth Davison, director of the Department of Housing and Community Affairs.

The alleyways will help create "a real community," she said. "We're very excited about this."

Several buildings in south Silver Spring are also being reused to help bring people to the area, Davison said, using the idea of Smart Growth -- placing new development in urban areas to limit suburban sprawl.

"The area had a lot of vacant buildings," Davison said. "Today, the vacant buildings are being reused on site or the property has been demolished and turned into housing."

One example of adaptive reuse in south Silver Spring is the refurbishing of the Gramax building, a building formerly owned by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association that has been vacant and deteriorating for 15 years. RST Development bought the property and, with some financial help from Montgomery County, is turning the former office building into 180 affordable housing and market rate units, and also creating street-level retail space and art exhibition space to support the central business district's state-approved Arts and Entertainment District designation.

"We're really proud of the way this all came together," said Scott Copeland, a principal at RST, while showing off the inside of an unfinished second-floor apartment in the Gramax. He hopes to have the building completed by the middle of the summer, Copeland said.

More than 800 housing units are slated to occupy the area as it develops. RST Development is also redeveloping the Williams and Wilste buildings on Eastern Avenue and turning them into housing units. The former Canada Dry bottling plant is being developed by JBG Cos. and turned into 210 housing units, and co-housing unit Eastern Village -- "a commune for grown-ups"-- is also being built on Eastern Avenue, in a former office building, Davison said.

The Silver Spring Innovation Center, an incubator for 20 to 30 start-up technology businesses, will also be located at East West Highway and Blair Mill Road, Duncan said, and some companies have already shown interest.

South Silver Spring is transforming and more life can be seen on its streets, Van Hollen said. "It's a place people want to go. People want to come here."