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Mount Rainier will purchase two more blighted properties in the city in an effort to set the stage for future development.

At its Dec. 10 meeting, the City Council approved buying the Eastern Star building at 3405 Rhode Island Ave. and the old E.M. Dudley Funeral Home building at 3200 Rhode Island Ave.

Last year, the council voted to buy a lot next to the funeral home, the site of the former Bass Liquor store at 3208 Rhode Island Ave., and has since paved over the land with plans to within the next 6 months turn it into a paid parking lot for commuters going into Washington, D.C. to use.

The vacant funeral home site, combined with the Bass lot, forms a 33,000-square-foot lot, and is a space that the city eventually wants to sell or develop with a partner. And the Eastern Star building, which is between the city-owned library and City Hall, could be used for a library or City Hall expansion, according to the proposal.

The Adah Chapter of the Eastern Star group will continue to use the building and the Terminal Snack Bar currently leases a the front part of the first floor of the building, a lease that could continue for months to help cover costs, according to the proposal.

The city hasn't officially decided on the buildings' uses in the interim as it waits for a developer, but one suggestion for the Eastern Star building is to turn it into a community commercial kitchen to rent to catering or restaurant businesses.

"One of the things that has been found is that as people try to start food-related business, starting their own kitchen is cost prohibitive," Councilwoman Ivy Thompson (Ward 2) said.

Thompson added that the kitchen could also be a space for community culinary programs, and that the three closest culinary incubators are in Gaithersburg, Falls Church and Alexandria.

There will be public meetings to garner input on the buildings' uses after they are officially purchased, Mayor Malinda Miles said.

The council voted Dec. 15 to direct city treasurer Vijay Manjani to pursue a plan to buy the Eastern Star building outright using $400,000 from the city's $2 million reserve fund, and to take out a $650,000 bond to purchase the funeral home property.

"I think the baby step for us is acquiring it," Miles said. "For the first time in my history in the city, the city will have a serious portfolio of land acquisition to raise something worthwhile."

Final approval on the plan will come with a council resolution in January or February.

Manjani recommended the finance plan from among three others, citing record-low interest rates.

A current quote for the bond interest rate is 4.3 percent, he said.

Manjani added that the city could pay off the funeral home bond in a few years once the direction of the economy was more certain.

Councilman Bryan Knedler (Ward 2) agreed.

"We could possibly pay it off early if it turns out that things are going to get better than they're going now, but I think we should take the worst case scenario view," he said. "We may have to raise taxes because we're doing a lot of things here to make future investments."

About six people spoke during a Dec. 10 public hearing on the purchases, and of 10 people who contacted Councilman Jimmy Tarlau (Ward 1), eight supported the move, he said.

The other purchase options included buying both properties outright, which could deplete the city's reserves during uncertain economic times, Manjani said, or financing both properties.

E-mail Elahe Izadi at eizadi@gazette.net.