The Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission plans to move its offices Downtown, agreeing yesterday to buy the former Karlsberger architecture building for $2.55 million.

The agency now leases space at 111 Liberty St. in the Brewery District, after selling its former Downtown headquarters in 2007.

MORPC will hire a consultant and inspect the building at 99 E. Main St. before closing on the deal, which it plans to do in February. The listed price was $2.9 million, said Bill Yaple, who led the agency’s building committee.

The committee had looked at other buildings, including the Liberty Street location. But that building is in a portfolio of three other buildings that MORPC would have had to buy, said Yaple, director of operations for Violet Township in Fairfield County.

The new location will be close to Franklin County government offices, parking and bus routes, he said.

After renovations, the agency plans to move into the Main Street building in November 2012.