LAKE PLACID — The Lake Placid Center for the Arts closed this week on a “whirlwind” purchase of two restaurant spaces near the center at 2126 Saranac Avenue — the home of Lake Placid staple Saranac Sourdough.

Saranac Sourdough isn’t going anywhere, LPCA Director of Communications Alison Simcox said. The LPCA wants to let Saranac Sourdough owners John and Eileen Black continue to run their business for as long as they’d like, according to Simcox. In fact, Simcox said there could be little to no change at the two-restaurant property — which also includes the now-shuttered Little Thai Kitchen — in the foreseeable future. While the LPCA might rent out the vacant restaurant space to another restauranteur or businessowner, Simcox said, the center’s staff and board of directors see their purchase of 2126 Saranac as an investment in the center’s long-term future.

The LPCA is coming up on its 50th anniversary, and Simcox said the center’s staff and board of directors are thinking about ways the center could expand over the next 50 years. When LPCA’s board of directors started talking this summer about how nice it’d be to purchase the Saranac Sourdough property for possible expansions, Simcox said they saw the property listed for sale “literally hours later.”

“It was just a strange thing from the universe, almost,” she said.

The Lake Placid Center for the Arts Board of Directors, with the help of a donation from the local Stoltz family — which owns Smoke Signals on Main Street — purchased the property this week for $810,000 from the previous owners. According to Essex County’s property tax history database, Eileen and Frederick Mills previously owned the property. Simcox said the whole purchase process, starting with spotting the listing, took only four months.

“We were fortunate to work out an arrangement with the owner to pay the purchase (price) over time — ensuring that this long-term investment wouldn’t impact our ability to continue to provide arts programming for the community in the coming years,” Simcox said.

Right now, the LPCA has two buildings — its main center and an annex building — on Algonquin Drive, next door to the property that includes Saranac Sourdough. Simcox said the purchase ensures that the LPCA could one day expand its services in the spaces and fill out its presence along Saranac Avenue.

“In theory, it would help people to see our programs, make them more visible and to be more welcoming and let people know they can come on in, and there’s actually so much to do at the center,” she said. “… We’d love to just increase access to what we’re doing.”

Allowing Saranac Sourdough to stay put gives the center some time to weigh its options for how the property could be used. Simcox said that possibilities include clearing the property and folding it into some “bigger plans for some renovations” at the center, or using the existing spaces for cooking classes like ones the LPCA has offered in the past. But nothing’s set in stone.

“We really don’t have plans set, and we want to really take our time and make sure that we see — what does the community need? How can we make our center even better and long-lasting for the next 50 to 100 years?” Simcox said. “We were hoping to take our time and figure out what the best plan is.”