I can't say I feel confident about the prospects of the city successfully landing a developer for the now abandoned and increasingly derelict Lighthouse Inn.

I know. I know.

The jubilation du jour about the future of the inn, which has been dissolving before neighbors' eyes since the city took ownership for back taxes two years ago, revolves around five offers the city received recently in response to a request for proposals.

After all, the history of the inn, a once glorious mansion — now listed on the National Register of Historic Places — is a tortured one of renewals and revivals, a seesaw that includes devastating fires, bankruptcies, fraud and restorations and reinventions.

But it is not just the inn's own checkered past that gives me pause about the future.

Let's be honest, New London has a dismal track record in these things.

Just look at the still abandoned and derelict Capitol Theater on Bank Street, which the city gave away to a convicted felon before allowing the landmark to flip to an absentee landlord who now owes the city no explanation or excuses about its deplorable condition.

So I am pessimistic about the Lighthouse Inn.

Still, among the five new offers is one clear winner, a developer offering a modest but not unreasonable purchase price, $350,000, with a letter of lending confidence from a senior vice president of a bank we've all heard of.

The developer promises a careful renovation of the inn, which would reopen as a luxury seaside resort. He also does not ask in the proposal for any other deals or givebacks from the city.

More on that offer later.

The other four really ought to have hit the trash bin already.

All five, though, are being reviewed by the City Council, which presumably will pick one. I will repeat my skepticism about the whole process.

The first proposal that should go directly in the trash comes from a relative of the Londregan city law director dynasty.

This Londregan, a commercial real estate investor, proposes a $250,000 purchase price, but also insists on 20 years of tax abatements. Honest.

My favorite, most ludicrous element of this proposal is not just that he proposes tearing down the historic building, replacing it some day, but he wants the city to contribute $100,000 toward the cost of demolition and $100,000 toward environmental remediation.

The next proposal I would immediately trash comes from the principal of the Water's Edge Resort & Spa in Westbrook.

This Water's Edge proposal is so thin on details it might as well have been written on the back of a cocktail napkin. It does get one A, for Arrogance.

The offer is a $1 purchase price and a demand for unspecified tax abatements. It also insists on the restoration of the inn's beach rights, which were stripped when a previous owner failed to pay beach association dues.

Maybe the beach rights can be restored, but certainly the city can't agree to a deal dependent on it, especially when it is selling the four-acre property for $1.

The very brief proposal includes a rendering of one of the town houses the developer would like to build on the property, but there is no attribution of where the drawing comes from. It looks like a random page out of an architectural style book.

As for the other two offers, I am reminded of the robot from the old TV series "Lost in Space." Remember when the robot would wave his metal arms and warn: "Danger! Danger, Will Robinson!"

The other two proposals come from developers with no specific related experience and terms that would require a lot of due diligence.

One requires a sort of peek-a-boo financial disclosure: "We ... are very guarded about our business and personal finances . . . we will produce bank statements for review by town officials (with account numbers redacted and without retaining copies.)"

More to the point, the proposed purchase prices fall well short of what is being offered by the developer who ought to be the winner.

The winner should be Lighthouse Inn Investors, an investment group led by the president of a Bloomfield accounting firm.

They are proposing a careful $3 million renovation of the property, which would be run again as a historic inn. They cite specific partners, including a reputable bank and nationally recognized architects and hospitality consultants.

Most important, they offer the highest bid with almost no contingencies.

Why do I worry the city won't be able to accept this deal and move on, and let the good end of the Lighthouse Inn seesaw rise again?

This is the opinion of David Collins

d.collins@theday.com

Twitter: @DavidCollinsct