Will this time be any different?

Progress is an interesting thing.

Sometimes, it comes in the form of policy – words that will set things in motion for years to come. Other times, it comes in a more physical form, like the shell of the future Holiday Inn taking shape in Oshawa’s downtown.

And sometimes, it comes in the form of an investor.

It has been confirmed to The Express that the city has been working with “an individual” over the last few months on a proposal to redevelop the Genosha Hotel.

Yes, you read that right, The Genosha Hotel.

The six-storey edifice that sits at the corner of King and Mary streets downtown has been desolate and silent since its last attempted reno four years ago.

The bright fairy dust of progress was also hanging in the air back then too. A shiny new proposal to make the aging Genosha a prize of downtown had the city overjoyed.

The 2011 plans would see student apartments and even a partnership with UOIT that could see students studying in the very place where scantily clad woman once danced on polls.

That proposal fell through, despite the $1-million-plus in grants the project received.

So will this time around be any different?

The city is currently withholding the identity of this mystery buyer; the question has been met by councillors feigning lack of knowledge and city staff feigning ignorance.

Let’s hope this lack of communication (if that’s indeed what it is) doesn’t cloud the very proposal that is coming forward for this building – it’s the last thing the Genosha needs.

Common sense dictates the city is looking to make a decision on this item come the July 27 meetings, with a committee meeting set first, followed almost immediately by a gathering of council as a whole.

Common sense also dictates this “proposal” mentioned by Councillor John Aker is one under the city’s Central Business District Renaissance Community Improvement Plan.

The plan, which afforded the Genosha’s previous owners with grants, could be a big leg up for the mystery investor behind this latest proposal.

One thing is certain: the tax breaks and grants will need to be much more than what the city gave last time as the building is now older, shabbier and more vandalized.

As for the inside, before the last Genosha project fell off the city’s radar four years ago, it was found the entire plumbing system would need to be replaced. God only knows what else needs to be done in those shadowed (and probably decrepit) halls.

The building has a spotted history, one with countless failed investments and mortgages laid to waste over the years.

For the sake of Oshawa’s downtown, and for the thought of what the building could do to revitalize the city’s core, let’s hope this time will actually be different.