The deal offered an extended repayment option and was so good that the foundation snapped it up and paid the deposit from the $250,000 it had put aside for a visitor education and information centre.
Mr Major said the trustees now had agreed to switch the visitor education centre's planned location from the property on the eastern side of The Elms to the newly acquired corner site. It offered a much higher profile to passing traffic, better security and did not have the same resource-consent issues.
Although volunteer input would always remain important, Mr Major said the foundation could not keep on going back "to the same well" because eventually they would run of of steam.
"The Elms must be made commercially viable or it will not survive in its present form."
Mr Major said the cost to maintain the Category 1 and 2 historic buildings was staggering.
"We have to find a way to generate sufficient funds to operate The Elms."
The answer was for The Elms to model itself on the Waitangi Treaty House, the only residential building in New Zealand that was older than the 165-year-old Mission House.
Mr Major said the $2 million visitor education centre would tell the story of the mission station established in 1838 by the Rev A N Brown.
It would include a theatrette and rooms to display some of the 12,000 Elms artefacts.
"If Waitangi can go commercial and still retain its integrity, why can't we ... we can't keep on going around with a begging bowl to sustain this place."
The Elms Foundation wanted to meet the Tauranga Moana Museum Trust to see what each wanted to do and where there could be mutual benefits.
Of the museum planned to be built in Cliff Rd, Mr Major said: "We do not want any part of the museum to duplicate what we will be doing."
He said they were both targeting the same market so it made sense to work together to achieve what both organisations wanted - viable and sustainable operations.
"The city needs a museum and, in part, it has got it at The Elms."
Museum Trust chairwoman Vanessa Hamm said she was open to having discussions with The Elms. The benefits would be sharing costs because both heritage facilities would be going after the same dollar. Co-operation could include carparking and The Elms artefacts being stored in the museum.
"The Elms has beautiful grounds and they might not want to surround it with carparks."
Ms Hamm said the museum had a tortuous history and, until the discussions had concluded, she did not want people to think it could be a joint project in which The Elms education centre and the museum ended up in the same building.