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Does Gresham have a shot at Major League Baseball?

Admittedly, it’s a long shot for the Portland area to land the relocating Oakland Athletics. But that’s not stopping folks in Gresham from planning for a 250-acre development built around MultCO Baseball Park.

With a population of 110,000 or so, Gresham may not seem to be the kind of community to be planning to lure a Major League Baseball to its area. But that’s not stopping from local business leaders from mapping out a development plan for 250 acres in the city’s Rockwood area that would feature views of Mount Hood (shown in the rendering above; the yellow and blue represents a ballpark) and include housing, commercial space and park areas. From the Outlook:

Everything is being spearheaded by Lynn Lashbrook, a self-described “crazy baseball guy” who spoke to the Chamber during a luncheon Tuesday afternoon, July 20. Lashbrook has had his fingers all over Oregon’s efforts to bring the Majors to the area for nearly three decades, including participating in planning sessions for many of the proposed downtown Portland venues.

“Baseball is in my blood. I want to catch my 14th foul ball in Oregon,” said Lashbrook, an NFL agent who is also the president and founder of Sports Management Worldwide, an online sports management school….

The plans are headlined by the baseball park — a 38,000 seat stadium with a view of Mount Hood from home plate. But there are also designs for New Generation Factories, 3.25 million square feet of production, research and design facilities; about 7,500 new households for workforce, community and affordable housing; a festival marketplace surrounded by hospitality facilities; MultCO Stadium, an expandable 40,000 seat stadium for football, soccer and rugby; and 45 acres of parks and recreation.

Right now the Athletics seem very focused on both the Howard Terminal waterfront site in Oakland and various sites in the Las Vegas area, so any interest in Portland seems muted. But you never know, and it doesn’t hurt to dream a little, either. Check out the total plan here.

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