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"This is going to be a defining change for the neighborhood," says Greens owner Dan Friedlander.

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The owner of the ultra-upscale furniture store Limn is opening an affordable, retro-hip boutique hotel andbetting on Del Paso' Blvd.'s potential. If he builds it, will they come?

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George Bernard Shaw once said, "the reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself." Therefore, he suggested, " all progress depends on the unreasonable man."

By those standards, Dan Friedlander is as unreasonable as you can get.

The Sacramento native left for the Bay Area over 30 years ago and went on to launch a mecca of modern design in San Francisco–the furniture company Limn. Twenty years later, he opened a satellite of his design emporium in 1999 near the corner of Del Paso Blvd. and Arden Way, in a neighborhood that has been "in transition," as they say, for decades.

Now, nearly 10 years later, it's still in transition, but, Friedlander is single-handedly attempting to construct an outpost of culture and hight design here in a small complex just around the corner from Limn.

First, he lured upscale tenants like The Supper Club and clothing boutique and salon Article, and more recently signed on Fran's Café and the Big Idea Theatre company. And come May 10, the next step in his evolutionary plan will be unveiled when he opens The Greens Hotel. "It ill be the first boutique hotel in Sacramento with a young spirit," he says.

The 30-room Greens occupies the shell of a 50's-era motel that Friedlander has thoroughly retrofitted. Originally an office complex concept, he then began to discussions last year with the owners of Portland's trendsetting Jupiter Hotel.

The Jupiter, like the Greens, is a converted mid-century motel that was once located just beyond the comfort zone of Portland urbanites. But by combining modern design, a community experience with music and food, and moderate prices, the Jupiter–and its surrounding area–thrived, gracing the pages of publications like Travel + Leisure and GQ.

Although the owners of the Jupiter flew down to Sacramento and wanted to partner with Friedlander to make this the second property of a nascent Jupiter chain, schedules conflicted and Friedlander decided to go it alone, enlisting Article co-owner Andrew Floor to oversee operations.

But he is partnering with the same boutique hotel network that Jupiter is a part of–K Hotels, which provides advice, marketing and online reservations. As the capital city, says K Hotels VP John Sears, " all the right people are coming to Sacramento." He says he looks for "original" properties with an "interesting style."

That's exactly what Friedlander is shooting for. Each of the rooms is painted a bright color inside–some red, others green or orange. But the custom-made furniture will be black, solid-wood pieces with leather headboards.

Each room will also feature original works of art. "It will make the room richer," Friedlander says. He plans to stock the rooms with an eclectic collection of books ranging from classics to design tomes. Some rooms will even feature hardwood floors. And in place of room numbers, as two-foot high, brightly painted wood-cut letter hangs in front of each door, injecting instant color into the complex.

Just like the Jupiter, he is re-imagining the courtyard–once a parking lot–as a communal hub with outdoor furniture, AstroTurf, cooling misters and a mesh solar canopy overhead. During the week, he expects business clientele, but not on weekends.

"Weekends will be a much younger crowd," anticipates Friedlander. "Twenty-to40-year-olds who want to barbeque, hear music and watch outdoor films." With the aluminum Dutch doors, the top half of the door swings open, giving it a communal aspect that lends the complex its name, since a "green" can be a common area. "that's really the spirit," he says. "You can participate or shut the door–it's your choice."

Friedlander says it will have more amenities than you'd expect from a room that costs $120 to $150 a night. Fran's Café will provide room service, and the city allowed him to close a tiny side street to build a lap pool. With the self-contained dining, theatre and shopping complex on site–and nearby light rail that reaches downtown in nine minutes–Friedlander believes the neighborhood will be less of a factor.

"This is definitely off-center," he says. "It has the strange character of the neighborhood." In fact, he thinks that for certain kinds of travelers, that will be the appeal. "they don't want the standard Marriott experience," he says. "And this is a chance for that."