The City of Greensboro’s Redevelopment Commission has chosen a developer for a $42.8 million redevelopment project for the downtown corner of Lee and South Elm.

The city has eyed that parcel of land for redevelopment for some time now. Those who’ve lived here long enough remember it was the preferred site for the new baseball stadium that was eventually built on Eugene Street; later, more recently it was pitched as a site for mixed-use development with a consolidated Guilford County Schools headquarters as the anchor.

Even more recently is was pitched as the site for the ill-fated stimulus-funded downtown hotel before Guilford County Commission Chair Skip Alston stepped in and brokered a deal that would have put it right across the street from his International Civil Rights Museum.

The latest development plan calls for a hotel along with apartments, town houses, retail and office space. I think it would be a great development to anchor the south side of downtown, but —as you can imagine —I’m skeptical because of government’s involvement.

Over on the east side of town, grocery chain Save-A-Lot says it’s pulling out of the plan locate in the Bessemer Shopping Center on Phillips Avenue, another area targeted by the city for redevelopment.

Interesting quote from a concerned citizen:

Ralph Johnson, president of the Concerned Citizens of Northeast Greensboro, said he was disappointed by the setback.

“This community has been inundated with a whole lot of false hope,” Johnson said. “They have duped us. They have strung us along for months. A whole lot of man-hours and woman-hours that were put into this project to meet with Save-A-Lot, and then they do this.”

Obviously he’s talking about Save-A-Lot, but I’ll submit that nobody’s better at spreading false hope than gov’t. Again, I hope that’s not the case on the corner of Lee and Elm.