A bid to bring Major League Baseball to Portland has gotten very serious, very quickly.

The Portland Diamond Project, a group led by former Nike executive Craig Cheek, has submitted formal offers on two large properties in Portland.

One is a Portland Public Schools property north of the Rose Quarter that includes the Blanchard Education Service Center, at 501 N. Dixon St. The property is zoned IG-1 for general industrial uses.

The other is an industrial site in Northwest Portland. While not identified by the Portland Diamond Project, the site matches the description of the former ESCO Corp. foundry that closed in 2016.

Earlier attempts to lure a major league team to Portland foundered because of difficulties finding a suitable site. Portland Diamond Project aims to fill that space in the lineup first.

Besides Cheek, the Portland Diamond Project includes former Trail Blazers announcer Mike Barrett and former state Sen. Jason Atkinson, according to a news release from the group.

The group has retained Kansas City’s Populous Architects, which has designed more than 20 MLB stadiums. TVA Architects is serving as a local design partner. The Portland firm did not return a message seeking comment. A New York-based attorney, Irwin Raij of O’Melveny & Myers, is serving as legal adviser.

The baseball boosters said they want to build multifamily units along with a ballpark. Both sites have “ample room for multifamily development, which can help alleviate Portland’s housing crisis,” Cheek stated in the news release. “We’re planning to pave the way for 8,000 new workforce and market-rate apartments to create a vibrant, walkable community around the facility, wherever it ultimately lands.”

The group is not seeking “new programs” to fund the ballpark, according to the release. Public funding for ballparks has become controversial after several deals across the nation left local taxpayers holding long-term debt.

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, in a prepared statement, said he is focused on housing and homelessness.

“It’s my belief that city resources should be directed to these priorities,” he stated. “We will continue to watch the Portland Diamond Project proposal as it develops.”

Portland Public Schools was due to discuss the offer during a closed-door executive session Wednesday.

“The district is not really actively pursuing anything – more in listening mode,” PPS spokesman Dave Northfield said.

The PPS property has the advantage of proximity to existing sports venues – the Moda Center and Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

The area is also targeted in the Albina Vision, a loosely drawn plan for a large-scale redevelopment of underutilized properties. The historically African-American neighborhood was disrupted to make way for redevelopment in the 1960s. Albina Vision proponents did not return messages seeking comment Wednesday.

The ESCO property is close to Interstate 405 and the fast-growing Slabtown area. City leaders have discussed extending Portland Streetcar tracks to that area. The area is likely to become more integrated into surrounding neighborhoods, said Tom DiChiara, principal at Cairn Pacific, a major developer in Slabtown.

“I like the idea of the area north of Highway 30 there becoming more a part of Northwest Portland, more a part of a mixed-use neighborhood long term,” DiChiara said. He noted there are many obstacles to a baseball stadium in Northwest Portland, including zoning, transportation capacity and infrastructure.

Portland hasn’t had professional baseball since the minor-league Portland Beavers were sold in 2010 to make way for the Timbers soccer franchise.

The Hillsboro Hops began playing in 2013. Its 3,500-seat stadium is about 14 miles outside of Portland. Portland also has the Pickles, a summer league team that is mainly for college players.

A 32,000-seat baseball stadium would dwarf any other sports arena in the Portland area.

MLB has two teams that have made noise about moving to new stadiums. The Oakland Athletics just celebrated 50 years in the Bay Area, but their aging stadium has drawn few fans in recent years and generated embarrassing headlines for issues such as sewage problems. The team’s efforts to build elsewhere in Oakland have so far been stymied.

Similarly, the Tampa Bay Rays play in an older stadium and consistently rank among teams with low attendance.

MLB could also opt to expand. The league’s two newest teams, the Rays and the Diamondbacks, began playing in St. Petersburg, Florida, and Phoenix, respectively, in 1998.

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