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In what, infamously, was not one of its finer moments, the City Council in 2002 quashed plans to place a downtown ballpark at South Elm and Lee streets.

The rest, as they say, is history. The ballpark became -- and remains -- a big hit in another location on Eugene Street. And the South Elm/Lee area remains stark and underdeveloped.

Until, maybe, now.

A private investor is interested in building a hotel in the area, using federal redevelopment bonds to help finance the venture. Meanwhile, city and county leaders will go to Washington next week to seek federal stimulus money for a new Guilford County Schools central office, also at South Elm and Lee.

The potential investor in the hotel, Bridget Chisholm, envisions a $75 million facility with 300 rooms and has been involved in a similar public/private project in Memphis.

Chisholm has Tar Heel ties. She is a Fayetteville native and Wake Forest University alumna. She also has a home and family in Greensboro. In addition, she holds an MBA degree from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania -- and appears to mean business. "I don't spend my own money and time on stuff that isn't real," she told the News & Record this week.

Good enough. But don't break out the champagne just yet.

Hotels are hard to finance, and the demand for another one is questionable, at best. Eighty-four hotels offer 9,268 rooms in the city, where occupancy is down 20 percent.

Then there are all the grand plans for hotels that never materialized here: a boutique hotel in the now-defunct Bellemeade Village development; a 500-room, four-star hotel that was part of a fizzled downtown "mega project"; a Hampton Inn at Greene and McGee streets that was scuttled after the developers got cold feet.

The new central office for the schools also is a long shot that depends on a complex financing agreement. But it's well worth exploring.

And all of this suddenly heady talk about South Elm and Lee is encouraging in itself. A few years ago, you couldn't get arrested in that part of town. Well, actually you could; prostitution and drugs had been a chronic problem.

But the city has since reversed its benign neglect, razing dilapidated buildings, using federal funds for environmental clean-up and crafting a redevelopment plan.

And long shots that defy conventional wisdom have happened here (Southside, the Promixity Hotel and Center Pointe come to mind).

So we'll cross our fingers and hope, and see what percolates.