I can't quite figure out what to make of this convoluted front-page article about the Cityview condo project.

First of all, it's a good thing that Jim Clayton and one of the GOB usual suspects Raja Jubran got on board to bail out this sinking ship. And if I were looking for a condo, Cityview would likely be at the top of my short list. It's going to be sweet once it's finished, especially if any of the proposed South Waterfront development ever materializes.

That said, this is a puzzler: "The project is a centerpiece in the 750-acre South Waterfront..."

Actually, the snakebit Cityview project was in motion before the South Waterfront project materialized, and in fact broke ground about the same time as the SWF "visioning" kabuki was winding down and just as the city adopted a formal SWF development plan.

The city also gave the property it's own special TIF district separate from the SWF project (maybe before the SWF TIF district was established but I don't recall) and I believe it had to be exempted from the SWF form-based building codes because it doesn't conform.

The other unusual thing about the article is that it starts out with Mayor Bill Haslam praising the completion of "the first project in the South Waterfront development area to open," saying he hopes it is will be the catalyst for other projects.

On first read, it almost sounds like a puff piece for Mayor Haslam to, for some reason, take credit for a project that is two years behind schedule, significantly over budget, burdened with liens from subcontractors who weren't paid, the subject of a $23 million lawsuit, forced into foreclosure, sold at auction, and a sink for $2 million in city taxpayer funding - the fact that it wasn't a SWF project and was started by some guys-not-from-around-here notwithstanding.

But a more likely scenario is that The Mayor was asked to comment on something he'd rather not talk about as he's poised to take the Republican nomination for governor, and that was the best spin Tom Ingram could come up with on short notice.

You may recall that the city's five year plan for phase one called for 600 new waterfront residential units, 30,000 new sq. ft. of retail, restaurant, and entertainment space, a new waterfront park and greenway, and improvements to the highly dysfunctional Blount Ave./Chapman Highway and Sevier Ave./Gay Street intersections. Way back when, the South Waterfront project director was quoted in the New York Times as saying the the projections were conservative and that "We think the South Waterfront will exceed the study estimates."

The fact is, four years into the South Waterfront project not a single new residential, commercial, or public infrastructure project has broken ground (CityView does not count as noted previously) and not a single toxic industrial property has been relocated or rehabilitated. At least one developer has dropped out, a major regional hospital was abandoned and sits empty, and I believe Pilot even unloaded their nasty gas/beer/cig/lotto outlet on Sevier Ave.

As for predictions that the project would "exceed the study estimates," the phrase "wildly optimistic" comes to mind. Or as the cool kids say, "Fail."

In their defense, though, the intervening crash of the U.S. real estate market and the resulting economic crisis brought the project to a screeching halt. All bets are off, and any significant movement on the South Waterfront lies somewhere beyond the foreseeable horizon where it's somebody else's problem now.

But that didn't stop the city from taking over $1 million in state and federal funding for floating walkways and a pedestrian bridge over the river just last year. At least Cityview residents will be able to walk to U.T. football games.

OK, then.