Oct. 5--Up and down. Down and up.

Florin Road, once a regional retail powerhouse, is in the middle of another seesaw economic cycle.

East of Highway 99, the south Sacramento retail corridor is rebounding after years of decline. Meanwhile, Florin Road west of the freeway is on the down stroke with several key businesses closing recently or preparing to leave.

"It just seems like the street goes through these natural cycles," said Linda Scott, who owns the Airbrush Shop, a Florin Road garment printing store located in a strip mall west of the highway. "We're on the downside now."

City and county officials say that they're working on plans to revitalize Florin Road's west side. There's talk of mixing residential and retail development that targets the local area's rich diversity. Developers have toured the street, which straddles city and county line.

"It's a confusing tangle of city and county property," said David Spaur, Sacramento's economic development director. "We're figuring out what can we do together to package the parcels and bring the corridor back."

But they face some hurdles. Paralyzed credit markets, a slumping retail cycle and Sacramento's weak housing market have spooked investors.

"Making a lot of new real estate loans is something that no one wants to do right now," said Al Gianini, a Sacramento-area development consultant. "Especially in this market."

For decades, Florin Road was a huge retail draw. With Florin Mall on the east and a row of successful car dealerships and department stores on the west, it pulled in customers from all around the greater Sacramento area.

Over the years, however, one side of the street or the other suffered as suburban development blossomed with gleaming auto malls and new shopping venues that siphoned off business.

Crime, including a 1991 shootout that left six dead at a Good Guys home electronics store next to the mall, scarred Florin Road's image. More blows followed: Federated Department Stores Inc. closed the mall's Weinstocks anchor. Montgomery Ward closed its store next door to the mall. J.C. Penney Co. Inc. shut its mall discount outlet.

That left Sears, which owns its building, as the sole anchor tenant in the dying hulk of a mall mostly rented to mom-and-pop operators.

"The day after I got my job, Montgomery Ward closed," said Larry Carr, head of the Florin Road Partnership business group. "I thought, 'My God, I'm the captain of the Titanic.' "

But while the Florin Mall and the area by it slowly spiraled down, the west side of the street was climbing back up from a mid-1980s downturn.