If you raze it, they will come. A 2 million dollar mistake.

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http://www.cantonrep.com/index.php?ID=215418&r=0&Category=11


CANTON —— What if city leaders embarked on a grand plan to rejuvenate downtown? What if they spent $2 million and fought in court to buy and clear an entire crumbling block, practically gift-wrapping it for a developer? And what if, in the end, no developer was interested in building anything on the site?

Five years after targeting the former Kresge block as a potential jewel, city officials are wallowing in irony.

The city-owned block, along Market Avenue between Third and Fourth streets NW, remains a vacant lot. It’s a combination of a dirt field and 37 temporary parking spaces.

On Jan. 21, Canton’s community development department sent letters to more than 160 of the area and state’s movers and shakers, asking them to submit proposals for the roughly half-acre site. With no responses in hand, a mid-March deadline was pushed back to March 25.