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The nonprofit working to bring a retired naval ship to Fairview to serve as a museum plans to open a new office space and shop near the ship’s future mooring spot.

The has been building a team of volunteers in the Gresham area who want to turn the famous supercarrier the USS Ranger, now docked in Bremerton, Wash., into a museum called the Community Heritage Center.

The Ranger was featured in the movie 鈥淭op Gun,鈥� and the Foundation will sell mugs, hats and clothes emblazoned with the slogans: 鈥淩anger: Top Gun of the Pacific鈥� and 鈥淔uture Home Port: Fairview, Oregon鈥� from its new space at 21935 N.E. Halsey St.

鈥淲e wanted a more visible space with a bit more room,鈥� said Lonnie Dicus, senior adviser for the foundation.

Generating cash is crucial 鈥� if the funds to move the decommissioned ship aren’t raised by 2015, the U.S. Navy has decided to tear it apart and sell the metal for salvage.

If the USS Ranger Foundation can raise enough money to bring the ship to Fairview, however, the foundation’s plan is to convert it into the world’s largest floating museum, a community space, educational space and even an emergency preparedness center.

That plan could cost up to $25 million according to Dicus, but he says the fundraising efforts are going well so far. Last year the foundation raised $600,000, and the Foundation’s staff has since grown dramatically; 130 volunteers will be working to raise $1.2 million by this time next year.