It is mighty hard to tell what’s going on these days with Copia, Napa’s troubled center for wine, food and the arts.

It is planning on opening a grand new facility in San Francisco, or it is teetering on the edge of financial collapse? It is going to sell its 12 acres in Napa, or it is going to maintain its home base in Napa even as it expands to the city and focuses on Web and TV educational efforts?

Or all of the above?

With the future uncertain, here are some certainties about Copia:

• The building on First Street along the Napa River is not a perfect match for the organization. It wasn’t when it was built and it isn’t today. Despite hosting a lovely outdoor amphitheater and a dynamite demonstration kitchen, it is hard to imagine a perfect use for the Copia building.

• The organization’s ties to this community have been tenuous from the start and remain so today. Leaders determined long ago that locals alone could not financially support Copia. The result has been a hit (concerts, children’s programs, outside events like the farmers market) and miss (wine education, scattershot visual arts programs, the Bacchus Awards) effort that generates little love between Copia and Napans.

• The center certainly jumpstarted the Oxbow District and its troubles are reaching a peak at a time when its presence finally is bearing fruit. Restaurants, tasting rooms and high-end accommodations are now steps away, with more on the way. Without Copia, there would be no Oxbow District.

• Robert Mondavi’s dream for Copia was an ambitious and hopeful one, but is not financially viable today and wasn’t from the start. The institution owes $78 million after seven years of operation.

• As we’ve stated before, Napa would be worse off if Copia were not there. It has played an important economic and cultural role, despite its flaws and missteps.

Copia leaders said this week they hope to sell the land, and that is a promising prospect financially. Twelve acres in the heart of Napa, access to the Napa River on both ends of the property, with a brand-new Westin-Verasa resort to the north and a Ritz-Carlton planned for a site to the east. Sounds like a very viable commercial property.

But buyers are few these days, financiers even fewer and a sale may leave the center‘s future murkier than ever.

A solution may be out there, but given the many incarnations of Copia over the years and the near-desperate efforts of the current leadership, it is hard to see how this ends well.