The City of Wayland Downtown Development Authority is buying the parking lot that surrounds the old Harding’s Market just off West Superior Street.

The City Council Monday night gave its approval to purchase the lot for $495,000 from owner Dreamride LLC. The lot now surrounds the old Harding’s building that now houses Bentley’s Party Store, Your Way Pizzeria, the Big Dipper ice cream shoppe, Snap Fitness and No. 1 Chinese restaurant.

The city had leased the parking lot under a 10-year agreement that expired last July 1. The owner had tripled the lease price from about $1200 a month to about $3600, which prompted the move to purchase.

“It’ll be nice to have this site for public parking,” Councilwoman Jennifer Antel, also a member of the DDA Board, said. “The DDA will pay for it, not the city, so it won’t come out of our general fund. It’s an excellent use of public dollars.”

Councilwoman Tracy Bivins said, “A lot of local businesses support this.”

The idea from the DDA’s perspective is to provide incentive for people to come to the downtown area by proving a large public parking space,

The DDA will purchase the lot by borrowing money from the city and pay it back with 1 percent interest.

PHOTO: The parking lot that lays between these stores in the old Harding’s Market building and West Superior Street, had been purchased by the City of Wayland DDA for almost a half million dollars.