It's rare indeed when we raise a toast to a failed downtown renovation project. But where the Duke Studio Condos are concerned, that time has officially and happily come -- with the added bonus of still more good news, the reported transformation of the site to a Sheraton hotel property.

For those who are new to to the matter, we're talking about the old hotel on Willard St. abutting Duke St., near American Tobacco -- a one-time Ramada Inn and later Crown Park Hotel that Durham Centre developer Frank Wittenberg promised to redevelop as the Duke Studio Condos.

Surprisingly, the scheme to slap some Estee Lauder on the porcine structure and parcel it off as condos went nowhere; whether due to the high (on a per sq. ft. basis) price or the eyebrow-raising monthly utilities and HOA dues, we'll never know.

Last time we checked in on this little slice of ugly, the property owner, one DB Durham LLC, seemingly connected to a Florida-based lender, had announced the cancellation of the condo project and the property's sale, as of November 2007.