A late Friday evening meeting on the St. James Hotel has shifted the conversation about the landmark’s future.

Several members of the Selma City Council have asked businessman Mark Peterson if he would be interested in buying the hotel outright now for $1.2 million.

This is a quite a change from earlier discussions, which had Peterson paying $1 for the hotel now and then $1.2 million or more in years eight, nine and 10 based on earnings.

We think an outright sale would be best for everyone involved.

A sale would get the city out of the hotel business for good. The city really has no place competing against other hotels in the city.

But a sale also removes the discussion over what happens to the building should the hotel fail. Some proposals have called for Peterson to be paid back what he invested or allowed the remove improvements he adds should the deal fall apart years down the road. It would be a disaster for the city to owe hundreds of thousands of dollars years from now for a hotel they supposedly “sold.”

A sale allows Peterson to make whatever changes he feels are needed for the St. James to succeed. As long as the city still has a stake in the hotel, he would always be at the whim of Selma politics. With an outright purchase, Peterson would be beholden to no one except maybe his investors.

Finally, an outright sale would be fair to taxpayers. The city has put about $500,000 into the hotel since the summer of 2013. Selling the hotel would recoup that money and allow the city to tackle some other issues around time. Public safety and infrastructure should be top priorities on how to spend the influx.

Peterson said himself during Friday’s meeting that he didn’t want any ill will for the deal. No one could complain about an outright purchase, especially since Peterson is the only person to make a serious proposal to buy the hotel.

Should this deal work out, we wish him the best of luck in keeping a vital part of Selma’s downtown going.

We do think it would be a good idea to get an appraisal done on the St. James just to have an independent estimate about what the hotel is worth.