MADRAS – City officials say Madras is on the verge of a transformation. This week, they gave the process a nudge.

The city closed the purchase of a property on SW 4th Street this week, the second property it has bought since the start of June as part of a campaign to remake the Madras downtown. In all, the city will have acquired three lots for $825,000 at the end of this current shopping spree, which has tapped out the urban renewal budget for the time being, said Mayor Rick Allen.

The urban renewal district began as a task force in 2001. The Madras City Council established the district in 2002 and has spent about $1 million on storefront renovations since then.

The city began accelerating urban renewal this month, when it signed deals to purchase three buildings in downtown Madras. Two of the properties – at 115 Southwest D St. and 228 Southwest 4th St. – are situated atop a crest that’s several feet higher than D Street. The result is a sort of bluff in downtown Madras that can’t be accessed from the street.

The cliff was created in the mid-1960s, when the Oregon Department of Transportation leveled part of the hill to make way for the Madras couplet, Allen said. Most owners lowered their properties to street-level, but a few opted to stay on the hill.

”You’ve got this little circle there where the buildings are still sitting on a hump, as we call it,” Allen said. ”It’s really blight removal.”

The city plans to purchase every property on the block, and then level the hill. That will put the land, which borders the busy southbound Highway 97, to better use, Allen said. At least four more properties, including the Farmer’s Insurance building and the Church of the Nazarene, are in the city’s sights.

The city plans to wait a few months, until it sells the Juniper Auto Sales lot, before buying any more property. Each property owner on the hump recieved a letter from the city asking them to contact Planning Director Carol Parker or City Administrator Mike Morgan if they’re interested in selling, Allen said.

Joe and Lynn Roberts of Culver own a building on the ”hump” that houses the Opal Springs Family Center and an upstairs apartment. Joe Roberts said he doesn’t want to stand in the way of development, but he’d prefer the city change as a result of free enterprise, not local government.

”It seems like it would be more efficient,” Roberts said. ”I’m not real fond of the city doing that.”

The city’s third purchase was a 52,000-square-foot used car lot, Juniper Auto Sales on 431 Southeast 5th St. Nothing is slated for the site, yet, said Allen.

Developers are sometimes skittish about buying car lots and gas stations because of contamination risks, so the city decided to buy the site and certify that it meets environmental regulations, before reselling it, Allen said.

The purchase is also part of a plan to devote Madras’ downtown core to pedestrian-friendly businesses, said renewal district member Terry Hanlon, owner of Miller Ford Nissan.

”We’d prefer the auto dealers be on the north or south end of town,” Hanlon said.

By concentrating pedestrian-friendly shops downtown, Madras can avoid stringing stores out along Highway 97, and ultimately attract more tourists, Allen said.

”Hopefully you avoid the look of Anycity U.S.A. along the highway,” Allen said. ”The ultimate goal is to make people want to stop and shop.”

Keith Chu can be reached at 541-383-0348 or at kchu@bendbulletin.com.