City Hall is moving forward with a two-year-old plan to purchase the shuttered Conrad Center, once the area’s largest soup kitchen for the homeless and working poor.

In proposals sent to City Council with anticipation of quick approval, Mayor Dwight C. Jones’ administration is seeking authorization to spend $300,000 to buy the foreclosed building in Shockoe Valley from BB&T Bank.

Council also is being asked to authorize a lease agreement with Virginia Commonwealth University, owner of the 2.3 acres of land in Shockoe Valley on which the building and parking lot sit.

Plans call for the center, which neighbors the Richmond Justice Center and the juvenile detention center, to become a social services and employment facility to serve people in nearby neighborhoods, most notably the Eastview community that sits just east of the jail.

A defunct nonprofit called Freedom House opened the $1.1 million Conrad Center in 2007 after losing its previous home in Downtown. But Freedom House was forced to close the center and the rest of its operations when BB&T sought immediate full payment of the loan and Freedom House was unable to find another lender.

The $300,000 price tag appears to be a bargain. The price is well below the city’s assessed value of $793,000 of the brick-faced building at 1400 Oliver Hill Way.

If approved, the purchase also would use only a portion of the $1.2 million that the council set aside two years ago to purchase the building. The remaining money could be used for improvements and upgrades.

Mayor Jones promised in 2011 with approval of the new jail that the city would offer more services to nearby communities.

Initially, city officials had considered converting the city’s vacant nursing home on Cool Lane into the services center, but dropped that idea in 2012 after it proved too expensive. Since then, officials have been trying to obtain the Conrad Center.

Councilwoman Ellen F. Robertson, 6th District, has championed the purchase and secured support from other council members to gain the $1.2 million, securing part in 2012 and the remainder in 2013.

How much the center is needed remains uncertain. Richmond already operates a mini-City Hall for the Church Hill area in the 700 block of North 25th Street.

Meanwhile, the nonprofit Kinfolks Community has teamed with other groups to create an employment center in Mosby Court. Officials at Kinfolks are concerned that the new center would duplicate their efforts.