The sweeping vista of the Inner Harbor would impress guests of a new hotel - or shoppers in a new mall or even residents of new condos.

For now, though, the downtown property is the purview of motorists looking for a parking space near the water, the ballpark or Harborplace. Officials at Central Parking Corp, which just bought the coveted surface parking lot at the corner of Light and Conway streets, say they eventually will hire a developer and decide what to build in addition to more parking.

Other downtown developers and business people already have ideas for the site, as well as for a few other remaining parcels left undeveloped near the water - many that have been vacant or parking lots for years.

"It's one of the best development sites on the East Coast with its proximity to the harbor and its access right off I-95. It practically has its own driveway," said J. Joseph Clarke, a developer planning an extended-stay hotel several blocks from the Central Parking site.

"It would be an excellent retail location, a recreational shopping experience," he said. "That could be a modest part of it. It would be a great site for a convention center hotel. Harbor views are a big issue."

The city has proposed a convention center hotel on public land several blocks away. Clarke said that site, also currently a parking lot, would make a good site for an underground parking garage with a public park on top.

Others believe that the Central Parking property is the perfect hotel site because it's near the water and other hotels.

Lewis Bolan, a real estate consultant and Johns Hopkins University professor, said there should be a mix of uses on the site.

"If I had my druthers, I'd love to see retail, office and quite a bit of residential," he said. "Residential is the real strength in the market downtown. It might actually be doable. The offices you couldn't do today, but maybe in the future."

The market for offices has slowed with the economy, he noted.

The lot, initially considered for offices, has been empty since 1988 when the McCormick & Co. spice plant was torn down.

Other parking lots and old buildings downtown are slated for new uses, and developers and city officials mostly support the plans.

They said Baltimore needs more of everything - offices, hotels, apartments and shops for tourists and for residents. They also called for more public transportation and more public parks.

The biggest site left undeveloped is the former AlliedSignal property, a 27-acre peninsula that juts into the harbor from Fells Point.

"Imagine the site with trees and grass and parks with buildings sitting among them; it could be an open-space campus-like environment; an enclave on the harbor," said T. Courtenay Jenkins III, a senior vice president of Trammell Crow Co., which is planning a new office building on Pratt Street.

The AlliedSignal site sits atop the capped waste of a former chromium plant and is under development. It's been ready for a new use since 1999, when cleanup work was completed.

Developer C. William Struever said public spaces are part of the plan, which calls for retail, parking and possibly more offices for Morgan Stanley. The investment bank recently said it would move into Bond Street Wharf, a nearby Struever office development in Fells Point.

Struever said all of the downtown developers should focus on aesthetic elements such as public spaces, top-quality architecture and a mix of uses connected with public transportation. He decried development projects that call only for parking garages or would end up as just parking garages or lots.

"One of the saddest things in the city is the amount of land that's tied up for parking," Struever said. "Parking garage construction - and we've been part of it - is a sad testament to the low aspirations people have for Baltimore."

Andrew B. Frank, executive vice president of Baltimore Development Corp., the city's economic development arm, said he'd like to see much more than parking garages built. But, he cautioned, parking needs to be an element of every development.

The city is seeking to stem the flow of businesses out of the city, and the shortage of parking is a main reason they leave for the suburbs, he said. "We want to see any development that retains companies in the city and helps bring jobs, residents and tourists in to the city."

Frank said it was too early to tell what will become of the Central Parking property. Market forces will dictate what is built there in a few years. But he said other developments near the Inner Harbor are expected to move ahead before then.

Apartments are planned on a Pratt Street parking lot that had been the site of the News American newspaper building. The site was cleared in 1990.

A complex of shops and offices called Lockwood Place was announced in 1998 on the campus of Baltimore City Community College. A parking garage is under construction.

New apartments, shops and hotels are planned in Inner Harbor East on three parking lots.

Developer David Hillman recently converted the old Hecht's department store on the west side of downtown into apartments. He's working on another apartment building on St. Paul Place.

"More. More of everything," is his vision for the empty lots downtown. "Talk is cheap," he said. "Just do it."