Lakeland’s efforts to clean up its Gateway area at Interstate 40 and Canada Road continue to move forward at a brisk pace with a decision Friday regarding the Relax Inn.

At a special-called meeting on Sept. 29, the city’s Board of Commissioners unanimously approved the purchase of the motel, along with other vacant land in the Gateway area.

The board narrowly had a quorum with just three of its five members present: Mayor Josh Roman and Commissioners Jim Atkinson and Wesley Wright. Commissioners Michele Dial and Connie McCarter did not attend.

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The city had moved to condemn the Relax Inn property at 3645 Canada Road earlier this month, but with this new agreement to buy the hotel for $1.7 million, that will no longer be necessary.

By not condemning the property, the city avoids the requirement to use the site strictly for public use. However, it is likely that it could end up being the best site for a new Shelby County Sheriff’s Office substation, Roman said.

The property owner, who lives at the hotel, plans to briefly lease the site from the city after closing to wrap up their affairs.

“Just to be clear, if there is some sort of lease-back, it would be to help the family have more time to relocate. It would not be to continue operations,” Roman said. “We expect at closing for operations to be ceased.”

City manager Michael Walker expects to close on the property around the first of next year.

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Lakeland condemned the Econo Lodge at 9822 Huff N Puff Road in the Gateway during the summer and took possession of it recently. That motel could be demolished by late next month.

The city has a partnership with YMCA to manage a new recreation center planned for that property, with hopes it could open by the summer of 2025.

On Friday, the board also approved the purchase of 5 mostly wooded acres east of the Econo Lodge from Belz Investco GP for $1.4 million. The city has received numerous reports of homeless encampments in the woods there.

“That would be prime commercial property inside of the Gateway TIF (district), and whoever owns it would be able to come forward and ask for a multi-use request,” Roman said. “With the proximity to the lake, I felt like it was in our best interest to have as much control over what happened on that property as possible.”

After the city takes possession, the plan is to cut the underbrush, raise the tree canopy and make it easier for the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office to patrol there and eliminate potential crime.

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“The more land we can secure there, the better,” Wright said.

Roman also has proposed the Belz property as a possible location for a new performing-arts center. Lakeland is in talks with Orpheum Theatre Group for a new 1,000-seat Halloran Centre for the Performing Arts & Education that would serve northeast Shelby County.

In July, the city acquired 7 acres within The Lake District mixed-use project on the south side of the I-40 and Canada Road interchange as another possible site of a performing-arts center.