Members of the Mendota Mdewakanton Dakota Community soon may have a new place to call home.

The Dakota community is close to finalizing a plan that would allow them to move into an old farmhouse in Mendota Heights that would serve as an office, gathering space and spiritual center, according to Jim Anderson, a cultural chairman for the Mendota Mdewakanton Dakota Community.

“We have a party who is interested in helping us secure this property,” Anderson said, adding the person would buy the property and allow the group to rent-to-own. “We’re close.”

Jim Albrecht, the tribal council’s vice chairman, was less confident in the plan, which he called “nebulous.”

“We’re juggling a lot of things here trying to make something happen,” he said. “But hopefully, this works out.”

Dakota officials have been scrambling to find a new place since late February, when they were told their current house in Mendota has been sold and is slated to be demolished to make way for a parking lot. The community has been leasing the house on Sibley Memorial Highway for the past five years.

Nath Cos., which owns Axel’s River Grille next door, has entered into a deal to buy the house and 12,100-square-foot lot. The restaurant’s current parking lot does not have enough spaces as required under city code, and Nath Cos. has been leasing spots from the VFW across the street to accommodate diners.

The Mendota City Council last month granted the restaurant’s owners a variance to

the city’s 6-foot setback requirement — a move that gives Axel’s enough room to make the parking lot project worthwhile.

Anderson said the hope is that the Dakota group can start a spiritual healing center in the new house, which sits away from other residential properties on about 1.5 acres of land.

“It’s perfect for us,” he said. “We want to have men’s and women’s sweat lodges, and bring elders in to be able to stay there with us for a couple days. We want to have sessions for children to get together with the elders, so they can start to learn things that have been lost.”

The house would need minor upgrades before the group could move in, Anderson said.

“It’s a bigger house than we’re in now, but it needs some work,” he said, adding that it was built in the 1890s.

Nick Ferraro can be reached at 651-228-2173.