Marietta has no shortage of eyesores at the moment, not with rundown buildings and shopping centers all over town, and plenty of vacant lots where fancy developments had been planned prior to the economic meltdown. But one of the city's highest-profile eyesores was that way even before the meltdown, and shows little sign of being improved despite earlier promises to the contrary.

We're talking about developer Waleed Jaraysi's three-story, 24,000-square-foot half-finished building near where South Marietta Parkway, one of the major entryways into the city, intersects Interstate 75.

The city originally granted Jaraysi a permit in April 2005 for an 8,000-square-foot restaurant/events facility, then stopped construction after complaints from neighbors and after city hall belatedly realized Jaraysi was constructing a building three times the size of the one permitted. The stoppage left the building a shambles, one sometimes compared to the aftermath of a Baghdad bomb blast.

The city then took Jaraysi to court and persuaded Municipal Court Judge Roger Rozen to issue a demolition permit, agreeing that the site was both a nuisance and a hazard to public safety.

Jaraysi appealed all the way to the state Court of Appeals, which kicked the case back to Cobb Superior Court, where Judge Adele Grubbs ordered the two parties to mediation. There, in February, Jaraysi agreed to finish construction by May 2010 (and of an office building, not the originally planned restaurant/events facility). Jaraysi also stripped away the rotting plywood from the building's frame, improving its appearance somewhat. But other than that, it has been untouched since February, and at this point all parties concerned agree it's unlikely he will meet his deadline for finishing the building.

"I don't think anybody in the world's happy with it," said Mayor-elect Steve Tumlin.

He's right on that point.

Jaraysi contends his hands are tied by the economy and that he cannot get financing to go forward with his project. That could well be the truth, although city developmental services director notes that Jaraysi has yet to even submit his building plans for final approval.

If Jaraysi should fail to meet the May 2010 deadline, the city could then take him back before Judge Grubbs and request a mandatory court order for him to finish. Should he ignore that, or still be unable to find financing, it should do all it can to see the building finally demolished.

Although it would be preferable to see the building finished and added to the tax base, even a vacant lot resulting from a demolition would be easier on the eyes than the half-built, half-baked building that has blighted that site since 2005.