Liverpool City Council is set to buy Liverpool Central Shopping Centre in a bid to earn £4.3m over the first five years.
The purchase - which will generate a profit for the council over the loan repayment period - is part of wider plans to redevelop the nearby Knowledge Quarter Gateway zone.
If approved by cabinet, the council would acquire the centre's 114 year lease, and then simultaneously enter into a 20 year underlease with Liverpool CSC Ltd.
Mayor of Liverpool, Joe Anderson, said: 'The purchase of Central Shopping centre is too good an opportunity to pass up. It enables us to acquire a strategic site in a prime city centre location which we have plans to regenerate and the investment makes a profit for the council to reinvest in our services.
'The beauty of this deal also means that plans for Lime Street, Lewis’s Building, Circus Liverpool and Central Shopping Centre are now all inter-connected. This will all help to underpin the development of the Knowledge Quarter Gateway which is the next major piece in a 10 year plan to regenerate the city centre and finally connect the waterfront to our universities.'