Hammered by one of the worst downturns in generations, most developers deserve more time to get shovels in the ground.

But a few Hub developers have made careers nursing grandiose schemes, pie-in-the-sky projects that have lingered so long they have become notorious turkeys few take seriously anymore.

Well, maybe we should kick off hunting season early this year with a little turkey shoot, so to speak. Mayor Thomas M. Menino doesn’t have to don hunting gear, but pulling a couple building permits might be nice.

There’s no lack of game out there – a South Station tower first proposed in the Reagan years and an almost as old, and just as tired, plan to build a North Station high-rise complex next to the new Garden both come to mind.

Beacon Hill, in one of the few sensible bills passed this year, gave a blanket, two-year extension so developers slammed by the Great Recession can get back on their feet.

But these are different. If you sit on plans for 10 or 20 years, you have lost the right to have anyone take your plans seriously.

And here’s the rub – some of these do-nothing developers are camping out atop some of the most dynamite real estate in town, taking up valuable development space and discouraging new players with fresh ideas from taking a shot.

Here’s my list of the biggest turkeys – ambitious development schemes that manage to stick around year after year, occasionally teasing us all with a bit of faux progress, only to go nowhere.

Hines’ Highrise At So. Station

Unless the developer has the money and permits in hand, don’t ever call a press conference.

That’s the lesson from the lovefest held one June day in 1998, when Menino and top city and state officials threw a big event to announce plans by Texas developer Hines to build a 50-story skyscraper over South Station. I am sure they thought there was good reason to be smiling that summer day – after all, the project had been in the planning stages since the mid-1980s and must have seemed ready to roll.

But the celebration proved premature, to say the least.

After 12 years and lots of problems, from scuffles with the FAA over the tower’s height to a seemingly endless and unsuccessful effort to secure financing, Hines still controls the air-rights to what could be a blockbuster project. And there’s no start date in sight.

Winn’s Other Boston Stillbirth

East Boston shipyards launched more than a few sleek Clipper Ships back in the 19th century. Too bad some of that spirit of hasn’t rubbed off on the reputed developers of Clippership Wharf.

The project was supposed to transform the scruffy Eastie waterfront with help from some upscale housing. Now, roughly 15 years on, the harborfront lot sits weed–choked and empty, even as a mixed–income housing complex has taken shape nearby and the MBTA has put money into a neighborhood station.

But I guess we shouldn’t be too hard on the developers. After all, Winn Development has had its hands full with an even bigger disaster – the now defunct $800 million Columbus Center air-rights project.

The Once And Future Pier 4

What is it with these waterfront developers? Back in 1998, when Hines was convincing everyone it was ready to start building a tower over South Station, mall king Steve Karp swooped in and inked an option to buy Anthony’s Pier 4 and its prime 10 acre parking lot/potential development site along the South Boston waterfront.

Since then, Karp has at times toyed with plans for a mega development in the neighborhood, but instead of pulling the trigger, he has spent his money buying up real estate on ritzy Nantucket. Who knew?

Bruin & Stewin’

A new era seemed at hand for the dingy, bar–jammed streets around North Station when Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs and gang rolled out the new Garden back in mid 1990s.

Better yet, it appeared like the ultimate two-for-one deal, with now prime acreage around the arena on which to build – and potentially spark a neighborhood renaissance. Jacobs’ minions have floated all sorts of plans, from a high-rise entertainment complex to an upscale apartment tower.

But spending money to make money – hello Bruins – has never been the forte of the concession king from Buffalo. Now, 15 years later, and the Garden itself beginning to age, we are all still waiting.

Calm In The Combat Zone

Finally, any list of turkey development projects wouldn’t be complete without a nod to Kensington Development.

Led by a travel company magnate with no development experience, Kensington seemed in quite the hurry to start building a planned luxury rental and condo tower back in the early 2000s on Lower Washington Street. So much in a hurry, in fact, that it tore down an historic vaudeville theater, to the groans of historic preservationists, and managed to convince City Hall to take the old home of the Glass Slipper (yes, it’s a strip joint) by eminent domain.

And then? We got nothing – no tower, no talk of a tower, not even any turkey talk, just silence for seven years and a hole in the ground. Now the developers are said to be back in City Hall, with a new and improved plan for which they say they have the money. We’ll see – talk, as we have seen, is cheap.

But there a simple way to get your project off the turkey list – start building. Though as we’ve seen, that’s all too often easier said than done.