ZIP 92101 gets an awful lot of press attention and the development community just can’t get enough of Centre City’s opportunities. But there is urban life outside of Downtown San Diego. Immediately to the north is 92103, otherwise known as Bankers Hill, Hillcrest and Mission Hills.

As most of the area has been built out for decades, some may presume development there is dormant. Nothing could be further from the truth. While not exactly teeming with new residential development, it does boast of almost two dozen new projects, large and small, that will create a whole new face for the neighborhood over the next few years.

The one area that really needs help is the Park Boulevard corridor, the eastern end of Hillcrest. The good news is that rhinoplastic assistance is on the way, big time. On the corner of Park and University, CityMark has broken ground on The Egyptian, an 80-unit contemporary condominium structure that will replace an old bank building, movie theater and parking lot. It will be the first modern residential structure in that corridor and is intended to be a landmark.

On the same side of the street, HipHop Development soon will be under way with a 17-unit high-styled condominium project called The Cairo. It will, of course, architecturally correlate with The Egyptian. At Park and Robinson, La Jolla Pacific Development will build another highly attractive condominium project on the site of the old laundry. That six-story project will offer 37 units.

Elsewhere in 92103, Bob Lawrence is moving 47 families into his Park Laurel project at Sixth Avenue and Laurel Street. Hands down the most luxurious condominium project built in the county to date, its homes are typically in the 2,700- to 4,500-square-foot range with as few as three units per floor. Most have sold for more than $1 million and some as high as $3 million. Inevitably, this project and its clone tower (about to break ground) will set the pace for class in multifamily residency in the county. It’s almost a shame that so few blocks remain available along Sixth Avenue for keystone developments of this type.

Another thoroughfare that has seen virtually no development in recent years is Fourth Avenue. Now two new projects are under way there. The first is Mayfair’s Cambridge Square on the site of the old Elks Club. That decaying monument will give way to a 34-unit four-story complex of townhomes and flats starting in the $400,000s. Mayfair was the first firm to have sufficient faith in Hillcrest to build condominiums there in copious numbers. This is either its fifth or sixth project in Hillcrest and it has one more under construction in Mission Hills and another called Trilogy in the pipeline at Fifth Avenue and Thorne.

Also on Fourth, Lennar is getting ready to break ground on Alicante, a 14-story 95-unit luxury mid-rise at Quince Street. The project offers spectacular views down the canyon to the bay. Prices have not yet been announced.

A project recently completed should win orchids for its renaissance of the aged San Diego County Water Authority Building at Fifth and Spruce. Joe Sapp converted that homely monolith into 24 high-styled loft condominiums in a contemporary setting. It’s worth a drive by.

Another monument is on the horizon in Hillcrest. La Jolla Pacific Development, with the talents of KMA Architects, is going to build a 34-unit, nine-story showplace at Third and University, replacing a faceless one-story medical building. It will do for University Avenue in Hillcrest what Park Laurel has done for Sixth Avenue. And it includes a few spectacular penthouses. Not cheap, but spectacular.

Martinez + Cutri Architects are preparing to build a 14-story luxury condominium project at the corner of Sixth and Upas, next to Bill Starr’s classic 666 Upas Condominiums. The project will be unique in that it will have only one condominium per floor, 2,300 square feet per unit. Imagine living in a condominium complex where the elevator opens into your foyer. Now that’s class.

Mission Hills is in for a facelift, too, although some who live there are convinced that change in any form is bad. The first project to step forward was ConAm and Carter Reese’s Mission Hills Commons. Carrier and Johnson’s architecture is timeless and fits in most comfortably with that Craftsman-oriented environment. Offering 50 apartments and Starbucks, what else could you want?

Right across the street from Mission Hills Commons, in place of a most mundane shopping block, will be another Bob Lawrence work of art. In its very preliminary stage of development, it has all the earmarks of an aesthetic winner, blending residences with retailing and services.

It’s just a tragedy that the rest of Washington is so architecturally dismal. It would be exceptionally beneficial if the entire Washington corridor were to be converted into a redevelopment district so that most of the blight could be scraped and redeveloped. It deserves better.

Condominium conversions are a relatively hot topic nowadays. As the sole remaining source of moderately priced sale housing, they should be broadly welcomed by local government. Hillcrest has seen a number of conversions, each selling for distinctly less than newly constructed homes. My firm’s research indicates that conversions sell for about two thirds the price of newly built condominiums. The 34-unit Trevi Villas on Third Avenue rapidly sold out its two and three-bedroom units at $300,000, a bargain in San Diego terms.

On First Avenue at Redwood, the Village Terrace conversion is offering its substantially new face and remodeled condominiums in the $300,000 range. And on the far west end of Hillcrest, Reynard Villas on Reynard Way is offering units starting at $199,000.

And lest we forget, a new rental project in Bankers Hill is the rather attractive and recently completed Laurel Bay Apartments. At Fifth and Laurel, Simpson Housing has developed a four-story, 150-unit apartment complex with retail facilities on its perimeter. The corner of Fifth and Laurel has really taken a turn for the better, especially since the Mr. A’s building was refaced.

While we are in that area, the former Congregation Beth Israel site is in planning for a mid-rise tower with sensational views of the bay and airport. The project will share the block with the original synagogue and school buildings.

I could go on and on, but there is no sense in belaboring the point. 92103 is on the cusp of major change — not in its lifestyle — but in the ability for urban-loving San Diegans to inhabit anew one of the most likable neighborhoods in the county.

Alan N. Nevin is director of economic research with MarketPointe Realty Advisors (www.marketpointra.com), a consultancy providing real estate and demographic statistics, feasibility studies and litigation support to the California land use industry and legal professions.