Windsor's battered downtown is getting a much-needed vote of confidence from larger-than-life London developer Shmuel Farhi, who has been opening his wallet to scoop up properties here and hopes to make an announcement in February of his plans for the core area.

"I don't want to say too much much right now. But it's going to be good news," said the former Israeli soldier whose Farhi Holdings Corp. owns and manages four million square feet of office, retail, industrial and residential space across Ontario, including a significant chunk of downtown London.

"Over the next two months we'll be expanding our interest in Windsor and hopefully early in the new year we can come with an announcement in regard to my future business there," said Farhi.

In 2010, his company will take formal possession of a vacant 1.75-acre property west of the Art Gallery of Windsor, acquired in the 2006 land swap with the city for the WFCU arena property. He also owns the site of the former Lear plant on Lauzon Road. That building, once home to GM trim, has been demolished, leaving 7,000 tons of scrap metal in unsightly piles that will be removed when the price of steel bounces back, hopefully in the spring, clearing the way for a mixed-use development.

"So far Windsor has cost me a lot of money," said Farhi. He explained that his company took a financial beating ("we lost our shirt") on its leaseback arrangement with Lear when the automotive supplier went broke, and it then took another seven-figure pounding when the global economic tsunami sent the price of steel plummeting from $453 a ton to as little as $50 a ton last November before gradually rebounding.

But Farhi, a serious chess player, believes a successful investor must take a long-term view: "You have to look and see where you want to be, 20 years ahead."

However, he sees Windsor and its downtown poised for better times as the global economic recovery switches into overdrive, triggering inflation but creating "once-in-a-lifetime" opportunities. Windsor's assets, he said, begin with an unparalleled location, one which provides immediate access to millions of people.

He's impressed with the city's success in persuading St. Clair College to move hundreds of its students downtown -- an idea London is just beginning to consider -- and he believes the proposed canal, which would run right by his property at Bruce and Pitt, would create an immediate tourist attraction and make Windsor more attractive for those considering retiring here.

Farhi, who deals with municipalities from James Bay to the St. Lawrence, said Windsor benefits from having the best mayor in Ontario, a pro-business council and fast and responsive administrators.

No doubt those will be fighting words for those tortured souls and conspiracy theorists who hate Eddie Francis with a passion and lie awake nights praying Windsor will go from bad to worse so they can pile more blame on his head.

Speaking of conspiracy theories, not to mention smear tactics, you've no doubt heard the one (repeatedly endlessly during the recent CUPE strike) about how Francis and Farhi are first cousins who cooked up the arena land swap in order to feather the family nest.

This is the blood libel that won't die, no matter how many stakes are hammered through it. In the summer of 2008, following a canal press conference at the art gallery, I cornered Francis outside and asked about the rumour. He chuckled and called Farhi over.

Did you know, he asked, that we're cousins? Farhi roared and gave Francis a crushing bear hug. "If you and I are cousins, my friend, there can indeed be peace in the Middle East," he cackled.

Francis is a Christian of Lebanese ancestry. Farhi is an Israeli Jew, raised on a kibbutz, who fought in Israel's war in Lebanon in 1982, when Francis was just a toddler. They met in 2004 at the wedding of Francis's university roommate in London, where Farhi, who owned the reception facility, introduced himself and Francis started pitching Windsor as a place to invest. What they have in common is not family ties. It's brains and gumption. More than most of us possess.

Anywhere else this would be a good news story. But not here. Not for a toxic minority that invariably chooses to think the worst of anyone who would invest in Windsor.