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An occasional series examining what's up with stalled projects around the city. When Tom Paterson and Ken Worne first envisioned the Inn on College a couple of years ago, the two didn't realize how ahead of curve they actually were.

Since then, boutique hotels have been popping up all over the downtown landscape. The inn, meanwhile, remains dormant -- a tarpaulin-draped construction site where Ted's Wrecking Yard used to be on College Street just west of Bathurst. While the sign is still up, work on the inn stopped dead more than a year ago, leaving locals scratching their heads over the state of the project. The original plan for the $2-million bed 'n' bar was a contemporary spin on the old-fashioned English inn -- complete with cozy pub and a barkeeper to hand over the keys for six upstairs rooms.

"We conceived of the idea even before Jeff Stober and the Drake," says Mr. Paterson, who currently owns and runs the Paddock, an established media watering hole on Bathurst Street at Queen. "But the difference is he had lots of money. The problem all along was dealing with our landlord and his refusal to sell the building."

While the project generated initial interest from deep-pocketed backers, the deal fell through when it became clear the inn would have to continue to operate on a lease. By that time, the building was gutted and the work was already a quarter done, architect Frank Giannone says.

Locals who welcomed the idea of a Drake-style institution on the College Street strip -- an area suffering badly from the cheesy-pasta-bar-of-the-moment syndrome -- should not despair. While Mr. Paterson and Mr. Worne have decided to abandon the original site, they are currently looking into different locations for the inn. The partners are contemplating purchasing another property on College, this one directly across the street from Bar Italia, near Clinton.

"We still have our company, our designs, our plans and our crew," Mr. Paterson says. "There'll be an inn somewhere. It'll just be really sad if it doesn't happen on College since that's the perfect place for it."

Do you know of a project that's in arrested development? E-mail globetoronto@globeandmail.ca