There appears to be a buyer entering the local real estate market: the city of Santa Rosa.

As Staff Writer M.G. McCoy reported Saturday, the city is interested in two largely vacant downtown buildings. One is the WestAmerica Bank across First Street from City Hall; the other is the Charles Schwab office complex at Third Street and Santa Rosa Avenue.

So how can a city struggling to bridge a $20 million budget gap afford to buy and renovate two buildings at a projected cost of $7 million?

And, perhaps more important, what is the city planning for these buildings? Not to mention the two it purchased last year.

City officials do a better job of answering the first question than the second.

Money for the Schwab building would come from property taxes collected in the downtown redevelopment district. By law, that money must be spent on redevelopment projects. It cannot be transferred to the deficit-ridden general fund, which covers such expenses as police, fire, street lights, planning and parks.

The city already borrowed money to buy the Chamber of Commerce building and the WestAmerica Bank next door, and officials say the loan payments would be less than the cost of leasing space for city offices.

But to what end?

City officials say owning the Schwab building might aid efforts to revitalize the AT&T building, the concrete bunker next door that was purchased by the city in 2007. The WestAmerica Bank could be used to consolidate offices the city now leases around town. Eventually a new high-rise City Hall could be built on that site.

However, the city has yet to decide what to do with the AT&T building. Plans to partner with a private developer on a high-rise project on city land at Third and D streets have yet to be achieved. And a new City Hall is years away.

Before plunging further into downtown real estate, the city would be wise to complete a master plan for both its existing properties and the ones that it might acquire.

City officials also need to effectively explain the distinction between redevelopment money and the general fund or they'll have a tough time defending the cuts in public services coming in the next few months. Presumably they learned that lesson when they used redevelopment funds to study reunification of Courthouse Square during a previous round of cuts to general fund programs.