Some of the difficulty in achieving a full-scale renaissance in downtown New London has long been blamed on out-of-town investors who hang on to some of the bigger and more prominent buildings, not renovating them but not selling them either.

Investors presumably are waiting for more of a renaissance to occur. But if everyone keeps waiting, nothing big will ever happen.

It is some of this investor standoff that supporters of a land-value tax hope to address, by not punishing building owners with new taxes on improvements they make.

I wonder if a tax on empty storefronts might not be a better idea.

One of the empty buildings downtown that bothers me the most is on lower State Street, just up from the intersection with Bank Street.

The building at 48 State used to house Kientzy Jewelers. It was purchased in 2005, for $272,500, by Michael M. Connery, a former partner at a prominent New York City law firm.

In 2001, Connery, who is married to someone who grew up in the region, also bought 100 acres of land in Stonington, an abandoned airport, and turned it into what has become the successful Saltwater Farm Vineyard.

He started an extensive renovation of the State Street building after buying it, then stopped.

It is now empty and gutted down to the studs. The first-floor storefront is boarded up with plywood painted with a crude mural. The rest of the façade, on the upper floors, looks good.

"I got caught up in the romance of rebuilding an historic building," Connery told me this week, when I met with him at the vineyard to talk about his New London property.

The romance apparently wore off, though, and Connery says he is not sure how much more of a renaissance to expect in New London. He says he doesn't want to sell the State Street building, though, because he's already invested a lot of money in it.

It strikes me as an especially unfortunate example of downtown blight because of its prominent location.

With the renovation of the Parade, the boarded-up storefront at 48 State is now at a gateway to the city, on the front steps of downtown. It's one of the first things to catch your eye when you get off a ferry or a train.

Connery said he would like to be a good citizen, but there is not much demand for the rental of downtown storefronts.

As for the three apartments planned for the upper stories, he said finishing a renovation of the interior is a private matter that shouldn't involve the public. Adding three more apartments would not have that much impact downtown. Those are fair points.

He did say he plans to proceed with a completion of the storefront façade, but he added that he doesn't want to commit to a time frame for doing the work.

Since the plywood has now been up for a few years, I hope the finish to the façade is sooner rather than later.

Compared to the millions he's invested in the Stonington vineyard and money he's already put into 48 State, new storefront windows seem like a modest investment that would pay big dividends for New London.

It would make for good citizenship.

And who knows, it's a great location. Maybe someone will rent it. A prominent Mystic jeweler just snapped up another space just up the block.

If not, the storefront at 48 State might make a nice little tasting room, for promoting a beautiful vineyard in Stonington.

This is the opinion of David Collins