Giving away one of the four Main Street buildings the city spent $300,000 for in 2010 to a Middletown arts organization is in the best interest of revitalizing downtown, city officials said Thursday.

Middletown City Council will vote in two weeks on whether to donate the Masonic Temple building at 4 N. Main St. to the Arts Central Foundation, an 8-year-old nonprofit arts group, for free. The Masonic Temple is one of four buildings — the former CG&E, Bank One and First National buildings are the others — the city purchased in October 2010 in preparation of Cincinnati State Technical & Community College opening a Middletown branch.

In the end, Cincinnati State was only interested in using the CG&E building — which was sold to the college’s developer Higher Education Partners for $202,000 — and the city was left holding the other properties.

The Arts Central Foundation used the Masonic Temple for office space and class offerings in 2011, paying the city $14,573 for utilities and maintenance of the building but not rent, according to city records. City staff recently recommended that council consider donating the building to the group.

Some residents have questioned why the city would give away a property bought with taxpayer dollars. But many on City Council believe donating the building is in the best interest of revitalizing downtown.

“There’s not a ton of value really left in that building,” Mayor Larry Mulligan said. “Any little money we would get from the organization would be better spent in putting it back into the building for the betterment of downtown.”

Downtown Middletown is in the midst being revitalized and redeveloped into an arts, education and entertainment destination. Downtown anchors Pendleton Art Center, BeauVerre at the Square and Cincinnati State Middletown are the main drivers of the revitalization, and there’s new businesses that have started or will be starting up.

City Manager Judy Gilleland said the Masonic Temple’s former owner, the late Perry Thatcher, he had conversations prior to his death with Art Central Foundation officials about the possibility of donating that building to them.

Gilleland said she believes the city will recoup the taxpayer dollars used to buy the buildings.

“We have other buildings we have yet to dissolve of,” she said.

Councilman A.J. Smith supported Gilleland’s belief the city will get taxpayer’s money back.

“I think the donation to the Art Central Foundation is a great move on our part,” Smith said. “They do a lot for downtown Middletown, and the community at large.”

Council woman Anita Scott Jones believes over time the Art Central Foundation’s initiatives will provide the city with many ancillary benefits.

“They have invested a lot into that building, and it ties in with what’s going on with downtown Middletown,” Jones said.

Vice Mayor Dan Picard said by giving the building, it keeps a downtown building filled.

“There isn’t a buyer for it, and I don’t know how long we could continue to carry it,” said Picard.

The Art Central Foundation’s annual fundraiser, which was held last month, will support a newly-created endowment fund that will support the building maintenance and the financial stability of the organization.

“It’s been a long time that we’ve been kind of on hold with the building,” said Sue Wittman, president of the Art Central Foundation.

The first priority, she said, will to fix the rear gutter before the winter weather invades the region, she said. The first interior work will be to improve the first floor to attract two tenants, a locally-owned restaurant of some sort and a locally-owned retailer, Wittman said.

The Art Central Foundation will have two responsibilities when they take title to the building, said Community Revitalization Director Doug Adkins.

First, the foundation will remove the two doorways linking the First National and Masonic Temple buildings and seal the wall to building code specifications. Second, the organization will take ownership of any heating and air conditioning equipment on the Masonic Temple building that services the attached First National building.