City of Portland unsuccessfully pitches Rose City Golf Course as MLB stadium site

Last month, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler’s office attempted to organize a tour of Rose City Golf Course for representatives from the Portland Diamond Project, according to emails obtained by OPB.

The goal was to pitch the 144-acre course — which lies near Northeast 82nd Avenue and Interstate 84 — as an alternative site for a Major League Baseball stadium in Portland.

The pitch comes as Major League Baseball considers Portland and several other cities across the country for two coveted expansion team sites. That competition has led to city governments and developers announcing ever larger and more expensive stadium locations to attract a professional baseball team.

Craig Cheek, the public face of the Diamond Project, told the mayor’s office in a Feb. 22 email that the Diamond Project was not interested in the Rose City Golf Course, and the slightly larger RedTail Golf Center in Beaverton would continue to be their sole focus. No tour ever took place.

The mayor’s office has long advocated for a stadium near Lloyd Center, a much smaller site but one the city argues could liven much of Portland’s urban core. And it also neighbors many existing TriMet bus and MAX lines.

But pitching Rose City as an alternative site within city limits — even though it lacks some of the benefits to the city core that the Lloyd Center site would provide — appears to show just how far the mayor’s office is willing to go to have a team based in Portland.

“I think they were trying to think of an alternative to RedTail,” Cheek said. “Something that was in Portland city limits or Multnomah County.”

In many ways, Rose City mirrors many of the same attributes that attracted the Diamond Project to RedTail. It’s incredibly large, providing space for other developments that could provide a revenue stream to fund the new stadium. But the golf course is also surrounded by residential neighborhoods, with little existing commercial development, Cheek said.

The clubhouse on Rose City is also on the National Registry of Historic Places, another development hurdle. And investors with the Diamond Project — many of whom remain unknown to the public — expressed little interest in that section of Portland.

“This is a massive, multibillion-dollar project, so where is the interest level and where is the investment?” Cheek said. “There just wasn’t a real big appetite to invest in that part of town right now.”

RedTail Golf Course, meanwhile, has been a controversial decision since the Diamond Project announced in January that the course would be the group’s preferred location. RedTail lies near the busy Oregon 217 with few public transit options, leading to skepticism among locals, government officials and industry leaders alike about its viability to host a stadium.

The mayor’s office declined OPB’s requests for an interview.

In a statement that’s been provided to reporters multiple times, a spokesperson said Thursday, “For years, Mayor Wheeler and his team have been engaged in conversations with the Portland Diamond Project with a clear goal to bring MLB baseball to Portland. Portland remains our preferred location, given existing multimodal transportation options, vibrant urban and sports culture, and housing options.”

The two sides are still negotiating the potential sale of RedTail. Cheek said he could not provide any updates this week.