Walking back from lunch Wednesday along Polk Street, I shot a glance at the Fisk Building.

I darted across the street and pressed my face against a grimy window and saw what I had hoped to see: construction, and lots of it, ongoing in the one-time bank building.

There’s a sign hanging on a parking garage next to the structure declaring that the new Marriott hotel is scheduled to open on the site next summer. What a grand step forward in the effort to revive downtown.

Crews have all but gutted the ground floor of the Fisk. The plan is to turn the historic structure into a downtown business hotel, along with office space.

It’s just one step, but it’s more than a small one. And it’s happening in one of downtown’s more attractive structures. For my money, the Fisk ranks right up there with the Santa Fe Building as an aesthetic gem.

My sincere hope is that the work on the Fisk doesn’t stall as it has on the Barfield Building a few blocks away. That promotional sign on the parking garage surely will keep the momentum moving forward — correct?